It does not take foundation of wealth, in which will generate monetary once you invest properly.All we to do is be certain that the sky has the ideal luggage.Fall out just after the sun arises and hike for 2 hours.What we need to do is relate the praise towards the event, not the infant? s total character.For that public? s advantage as well as ease, this file may well also be accessed through the Internet this time.

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Playing guitar solos can be quite a wonderful and unforgettable experience should you really prepared and ready in the challenge.? Or do you tell your child to? Change your mental attitude, buddy.Each concerned consumer should print out this little article together with keep it handy and in a position post or serve such business and/or person who breaks these rules.Every marketing tips that will highlight how to use social media to help get the word out, promote yourself to get the best positioning possible, and repurpose everything you do so your business will grow exponentially.In regards to the Author Max Glantzman is definitely the head designer and entrepreneur of JuiceBox Design, located at Visit the online world Design Advice Forum in the exact location for free advice from him and also other professional web designers.

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On oakley frogskins\r\n 1998 Individuals Magazine often called him the sexiest R&B guitarist alive.Honestly, I was nervous, although My partner and i been planning for The Talk for more than a year.Minor atrial septal defects often cause very few problems and may be found later in everyday living.Subsequently there\'s this over-sensitive females that even the tiniest and innocent criticism would make them sob and run for you to daddy for help- refrain from them.? If you can get a contact address from them you could probably send them information approximately another product that they would desire.

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\r\nRelated Articleshttp://ts.weiyingjia.org/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=344146&extra=\r\nhttp://wtffiles.co.uk/WTFforum/showthread.php?tid=172138\r\nhttp://dive-magazine.ru/post799946.html#p799946\r\nhttp://www.ns2.keopost.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=505690\r\nhttp://www.aisuixi.com/thread-696768-1-1.html\r\nhttp://invictusgc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1236563\r\nhttp://forums.marvelcrusaders.com/index.php?topic=1513086.new#new\r\nhttp://trinitynetworks.org/fluxbb/viewtopic.php?pid=2298187#p2298187\r\nhttp://pinoybitkong.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1003879\r\nhttp://baja4x4.org/foro/showthread.php?tid=334158\r\nhttp://www.zudangkou.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=222993&extra=\r\nhttp://erp.cncerp.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=147258\r\nhttp://facileinvest.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=660819\r\nhttp://dhakagsm.net/index.php?topic=180662.new#new\r\nhttp://asian-army.com/showthread.php?tid=244988\r\n\";s:11:\"POST_submit\";s:14:\"Submit Comment\";s:20:\"POST_comment_post_ID\";s:2:\"59\";s:19:\"POST_comment_parent\";s:1:\"0\";s:26:\"POST_akismet_comment_nonce\";s:10:\"f6ceffcc1f\";s:15:\"SERVER_SOFTWARE\";s:6:\"Apache\";s:11:\"REQUEST_URI\";s:21:\"/wp-comments-post.php\";s:14:\"CONTENT_LENGTH\";s:4:\"5484\";s:12:\"CONTENT_TYPE\";s:33:\"application/x-www-form-urlencoded\";s:13:\"DOCUMENT_ROOT\";s:25:\"/home/unireo2/public_html\";s:17:\"GATEWAY_INTERFACE\";s:7:\"CGI/1.1\";s:11:\"HTTP_ACCEPT\";s:3:\"*/*\";s:9:\"HTTP_HOST\";s:15:\"www.unire.or.cr\";s:11:\"HTTP_PRAGMA\";s:8:\"no-cache\";s:12:\"HTTP_REFERER\";s:35:\"http://www.unire.or.cr/metas-unire/\";s:15:\"HTTP_USER_AGENT\";s:65:\"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:44.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/44.0\";s:4:\"PATH\";s:13:\"/bin:/usr/bin\";s:12:\"QUERY_STRING\";s:0:\"\";s:15:\"REDIRECT_STATUS\";s:3:\"200\";s:11:\"REMOTE_ADDR\";s:15:\"173.208.146.202\";s:11:\"REMOTE_PORT\";s:5:\"60311\";s:14:\"REQUEST_METHOD\";s:4:\"POST\";s:15:\"SCRIPT_FILENAME\";s:46:\"/home/unireo2/public_html/wp-comments-post.php\";s:11:\"SCRIPT_NAME\";s:21:\"/wp-comments-post.php\";s:11:\"SERVER_ADDR\";s:14:\"199.168.189.50\";s:12:\"SERVER_ADMIN\";s:21:\"webmaster@unire.or.cr\";s:11:\"SERVER_NAME\";s:15:\"www.unire.or.cr\";s:11:\"SERVER_PORT\";s:2:\"80\";s:15:\"SERVER_PROTOCOL\";s:8:\"HTTP/1.0\";s:16:\"SERVER_SIGNATURE\";s:0:\"\";s:9:\"UNIQUE_ID\";s:24:\"WKcqi8eovTIAAEF1knAAAAAZ\";s:8:\"PHP_SELF\";s:21:\"/wp-comments-post.php\";s:12:\"REQUEST_TIME\";s:10:\"1487350411\";s:4:\"argv\";s:0:\"\";s:4:\"argc\";s:1:\"0\";s:25:\"comment_post_modified_gmt\";s:19:\"2011-12-07 16:56:10\";}'),
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The final measure that may be taken to avoid social bookmarking disaster is to undertake a designated employee that focuses the customer experience delivery service chain.- Utilize plug ins and already made tools to assist you to simplify the process.Contribution of Call Center Companies Rather than the contribution of the government, many call center companies on the Philippines had also contributed towards the success of the industry in the Philippine market.You should also want to have a prom day two or three or even a month or so in advance to try out your options in hair styles with your hair stylist.Lots of people who were earning huge 5 figure monthly incomes from AdSense have dropped back off to the low 4\'s.

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You ought to attend events and conferences which use the presence of prominent judges and attorneys.With regards to the Author Robert Maegh is actually a Belgian engineer, born during Germany in 1945.Ending: As with any industry here are a few players who stand out of the competition and eventually spring forward to generally be the leaders of the actual pack.You will basically receive a press release without actually coughing up for one.Right now there? s also a first rate chance that you a pair of don? t l.

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Version 4.7 of WordPress, named “Vaughan” in honor of legendary jazz vocalist Sarah "Sassy" Vaughan, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. New features in 4.7 help you get your site set up the way you want it. […]

We’re at a turning point: 2017 is going to be the year that we’re going to see features in WordPress which require hosts to have HTTPS available. Just as JavaScript is a near necessity for smoother user experiences and more modern PHP versions are critical for performance, SSL just makes sense as the next hurdle […] […]

Login Security & Monitoring Website Security

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Login Security & Login Monitoring: Log All User Account Logins or Log Only User Account Lockouts (see Screenshot). Email alerting options allow you to choose \n5 different email alerting options: Choose to have email alerts sent when a User Account is locked out, An Administrator Logs in, An Administrator \nLogs in and when a User Account is locked out, Any User logs in when a User Account is locked out or Do Not Send Email Alerts.\nSee BulletProof Security Login Security & Monitoring Features for additional features and options.

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Why is .htaccess Website Security So Much Better Than Any Other Type of Website Security?

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The answer is very simple - .htaccess files (distributed configuration files) are processed first before any other code on your website. In other words, \nhackers malicious scripts are stopped by BulletProof Security .htaccess files before those scripts even have a chance to \nreach the php coding in WordPress. BulletProof Security uses .htaccess website security files, which are specific to \nApache Linux Servers. Please read the FAQ page for Server compatibility questions.

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BulletProof Security Fast and Simple with No Manual Configuration Required

BulletProof Security Maintenance Mode

BulletProof Security Maintenance Mode allows you to create your custom website under maintenance page within BulletProof Security \nand activate Maintenance Mode to put your website in maintenance mode. Maintenance Mode allows website developers or\nwebsite owners to access and work on a website while a 503 Website Under Maintenance page is displayed to\nall other visitors to the website. Allow access to your WordPress Dashboard for only yourself or add additional IP \naddresses to allow mulitple IP addresses access to your WP Dashboard while in maintenance mode.

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BulletProof Security Additional Website Security Protection

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WordPress is already very secure, but every website, no matter what type of platform it is built on should\nhave additional website security measures in place as a standard. BulletProof Security provides that additional website\n security protection that every website should have.

BulletProof Security Login Security & Monitoring Features

Email Alerting Options: User Account is locked out, An Administrator Logs in, An Administrator Logs in and when a User Account is locked out, Any User logs in when a User Account is locked out, Do Not Send Email Alerts

Email Alerting Options: User Account is locked out, An Administrator Logs in, An Administrator Logs in and when a User Account is locked out, Any User logs in when a User Account is locked out, Do Not Send Email Alerts

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Visual and coding Enhancements made to the BulletProof Maintenance page

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Function check_perm redeclare conflict fixed

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How does the BulletProof Security Plugin htaccess Core work?

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The BulletProof Security Plugin allows you to instantly create and activate .htaccess website security with \none click (ok maybe a few clicks) for your website without having to know anything about .htaccess files. The Master \n.htaccess files are pre-made and BPS writes .htaccess code that is customized for your website. There is nothing to figure out \nor to configure. Click the AutoMagic buttons (creates customized Master .htaccess files) and Activate BulletProof Modes (copies \nthe customized Master .htaccess files to your root and wp-admin folders). BPS has built-in Backup and Restore and \nan .htaccess File Editor for full manual editing control as well. BulletProof Website Security fast and simple. Enjoy!

BulletProof Security Login Security & Monitoring allows you to choose whether you want to Log All User Account Logins or \nLog Only User Account Lockouts. The Dynamic DB Logging For has 3 options: Lock, Unlock or Delete database rows. \nThe Login Security database table is hooked into the WordPress Users database table, but they are 2 completely separate \ndatabase tables. If you lock a User Account then BPS Pro will enforce that lock on that User Account and the User will not \nbe able to log in. If you unlock a User Account then the User will be able to login. Deleting database rows in the Login Security \ndatabase table does NOT delete the User Account from the WordPress Users database table. When you delete a User Account it is \npretty much the same thing as unlocking a User Account. To delete actual User Accounts you would go to the WordPress Users page \nand delete that User Account.

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What do I do if my User Account is locked out?

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A stand alone Login Security Unlock User Account Form has been created that allows you to Unlock locked User Accounts outside \nof your WordPress Dashboard. To use this stand alone script download it from this BulletProof Security Pro plugin \nfolder - /wp-content/plugins/bulletproof-security/admin/htaccess/bpsunlock.php and then upload it to your website root folder. \nThen type in the path to the bpsunlock.php file in your Browser. Example: http://www.example.com/bpsunlock.php. The stand alone \nscript displays step by step instructions on how to use it.

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Do I need to understand .htaccess code in order to use the BulletProof Security Plugin htaccess Core?

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No, The .htaccess file creation is automated in BulletProof Security. Everything is automatically done for you.\nYou do not need to know or understand anything about .htaccess website security files in order to use the \nBulletProof Security plugin. Extensive help information can be found in the Blue Read Me help buttons in BPS.

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What do I do if I cannot log back into my website due to an htaccess file problem?

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If you accidentally activated BulletProof Modes without first clicking the AutoMagic buttons or if you put your \nwebsite in Maintenance Mode and your IP address has been changed by your ISP and you cannot log back into \nyour website then you will need to use FTP or your Web Host Control Panel File Manager and delete the .htaccess file \nthat BPS created in your website root folder. BPS website security is done purely with .htaccess website security\nand nothing else is modified on your website. So simply deleting the .htaccess file in your website root folder\nremoves BPS website security and will allow you to log back in, use the AutoMagic buttons and activate \nBulletProof Mode again to protect your website again.

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Will BulletProof Security cause my website to run slower?

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No, BulletProof Security will not cause a website to run slower. BulletProof Security is website performance optimized \nand uses very little/low website resources and very little Server memory. If you would like to check your plugins to check \nhow much website resource and Server memory each of your plugins is using install the P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler) plugin.\nBoth W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache use .htaccess code to speed up your website.

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BPS Alert! Your site does not appear to be protected by BulletProof Security. What does the Alert mean?

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When upgrading/updating the BulletProof Security plugin you may see this WP Dashboard Alert. BPS Alert! Your site does not \nappear to be protected by BulletProof Security. There are 2 very common issues/problems that can cause this. The cPanel \nHotLink Protection Tool issue or the WordPress flush_rewrite_rules function issue. Click this link Common BPS Issues \nNote: Any custom htaccess code or modifications that you have made to your htaccess files will not be altered, modified or changed \nduring the auto-update. Activating BulletProof Modes again after upgrading BPS is no longer necessary.

If your IIS Server has ISAPI_Rewrite installed then you CAN use .htaccess files / BulletProof Modes.

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IMPORTANT NOTES: If you have an IIS Server you may or may not be able to use .htaccess files and can only use Login Security & Monitoring. \nIf your IIS Server is using the URL Rewrite Module then you can probably use .htaccess files / BulletProof Modes. If you activate \nBulletProof Modes and your website crashes then FTP to your website and delete the root .htaccess file and the wp-admin .htaccess file. You \nwill not be able to use .htaccess files on your Server/website and can only use Login Security and the other features in BPS.

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Additional BulletProof Security Server Compatibilty Info

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BulletProof Security uses .htaccess website security files, which are specific to Apache Linux Servers. BPS is compatible with Apache Linux Servers, \nLiteSpeed Servers, Nginx Servers (if the Nginx Server is the frontend Server and Apache Linux Server is the backend Server). If you do not know what type of Server \nyou have you can check your Server Type and Operating System on the BPS System Info page. You can install BulletProof Security if you have a Windows IIS\nhosted website to use the additional features in BPS, but may or may not be able to Activate BulletProof Modes depending on what your IIS Server does and \ndoes not have installed / configured. Please see this WordPress Codex Permalinks without mod_rewrite for additional information regarding IIS Servers and also the Helicon Tech website for additional information regarding ISAPI_Rewrite.

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Does BulletProof Security Work on ALL Nginx Servers / Server Configurations?

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If you are using both Apache and Nginx together and Nginx is the frontend webserver and Apache is the backend Server\nused to process PHP then BulletProof Security will work on this type of combined Server Configuration. If you are only\nusing Nginx then an .htaccess file will not work. Nginx has its own rewrite module - HttpRewriteModule and the mod_rewrite equivalent\nof an .htaccess file has similar, but different coding and is added to an Nginx Server config file.\nNote: If you are not familiar with Nginx, then it should be noted that Nginx does not have a PHP module like Apache\'s mod_php, \ninstead you either need to build PHP with FPM (ie: php-fpm/fastcgi), or you need to pass the request to something that can handle PHP.

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Are there any known issues or conflicts with other WordPress Plugins or Themes?

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Occasionally issues or conflicts do occur with other plugins, but they are always quickly resolved. BPS is compatible with all\nother Plugins and Themes. An .htaccess bypass / skip rule is all that is required to allow a plugin or theme to do something that is blocked by BPS.\nPlease check the BulletProof Security Plugin Compatibility Testing and Fixes page for the latest plugin bypass / skip rules. All new plugin skip / bypass \nrules are now being posted in the BulletProof Security Forum.

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I am seeing Security Log entries in my BulletProof Security Log. What do they mean?

Is BulletProof Security Network / Multisite Compatible?

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Yes. BulletProof Security contains AutoMagic buttons for Network / Multisite websites. Both sub-directory and sub-domain Master .htaccess \ncode is written / created for your specific Network / Multisite site. BulletProof Modes should ONLY be Activated on the Primary site to automatically \nprotect all sub sites. Sub sites are virtual. DO NOT Activate BulletProof Modes on sub sites. BPS allows only Super Admins to see the BPS menus \nin sub sites. BulletProof Security also works with Network / Multisite Domain Mapping.

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Is BulletProof Security BuddyPress Compatible?

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Yes. BulletProof Security works with all BuddyPress site types.

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Is BulletProof Security Compatible with subdomain websites and subdirectory websites?

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Yes, BulletProof Security works on all types of WordPress installations including \"Giving WordPress Its Own Directory\" websites.

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Is BulletProof Security automatically setup already?

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Yes and No. You must be using a WordPress Custom Permalink structure for BPS to work correctly (every WordPress site should be anyway). If \nyou are not using a custom Permalink structure then you will get a warning message that Custom Permalinks need to be enabled when you access \nthe BulletProof Security Options page. BulletProof Security includes AutoMagic Master .htaccess file creation so that only one click is \nrequired to automatically create your Master .htaccess security files for your website, which you then Activate - BulletProof Mode. \nBulletProof Security also offers full manual control of editing the .htaccess files using the built-in File Editor. BulletProof Security is \ndesigned with everyone in mind: regular folks, Designers, Developers and Coders. BulletProof Security is designed to work with every type \nof WordPress installation: Single websites, subfolder websites, subdomain websites, \"Giving WordPress its Own Directory\" websites, \nNetwork / Multisite subdirectory websites and Network / Multisite subdomain websites. BulletProof Security will automatically create the correct Master \n.htaccess files for your website when you click the AutoMagic buttons. If you prefer to do everything manually then you would edit your \n.htaccess using the built-in .htaccess File Editor instead of using Automagic to automatically create your .htaccess files.

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Can I add my own .htaccess code to the BulletProof Security .htaccess files?

Does the BulletProof Security Plugin create or write the .htaccess files?

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Yes, BulletProof Security creates customized .htaccess website security files with AutoMagic. BulletProof Security also offers full manual \ncontrol of editing both the BPS Master .htaccess files and your currently active .htaccess files using the built-in .htaccess File Editor. \nThe BPS Master .htaccess files have already been pre-made. When you click the AutoMagic buttons your .htaccess Master files are created with \nspecific code for your specific website with the correct RewriteRule and RewriteBase automatically added to your .htaccess files. You can \nadd additional code to the master .htaccess files, edit the .htaccess files or create completely new .htaccess master files from within the \nWordPress Dashboard using the built-in BPS File Editor - no FTP required - no Web Host Control Panel required. BPS could also just be used \nsimply as an online .htaccess file editor and manager. AutoMagic is great, but having both AutoMagic and full manual editing control makes \nBulletProof Security a very versatile website security protection tool.

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Does BulletProof Security work with Git distributed version control system?

Help Info

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Extensive Help Info can be found on the AIT-pro.com website and within the BulletProof \n Security pages themselves. Click on the blue Read Me Help buttons to get Help Info about\nthe particular section or page of the BulletProof Security plugin that you are in. The\nHelp and FAQ page contains links to Help pages that will load in a new browser tab so\nthat you are not redirected away from your WordPress Dashboard.

This story involves me as a blogger, the Prime Minister, me again as a web developer, an Islamic cult attempting a coup d’état, and me again as a solopreneur. Oh, and WordPress. And ISIS.

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WordPress: My First Encounter

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In the beginning of 2006, everyone in Turkey was talking about blogs. It was the hot new thing on the web. Forums were “out” and blogs were “in”. Anyways, I was getting ready for the ÖSS and studying to get into a university but I was psyched enough to register a blog on WordPress.com, on January 2006. (I moved the blog into a free hosting space the next month, and opened up beyn.org in July 2006.) I was in Kocaeli, the city right next to ?stanbul.

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After the registration, I realized that I had nothing to write about. So I wrote about the day I had. The next day, I did the same thing. And the next day. And the next seven and a half years. Of course, I skipped four or five days. But that kind of dedication earned me a reputation and an award for “Best Personal Blogger of 2008”.

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But I didn’t just write about my days. After getting accepted into Ankara University in September 2006, I began to read and think about politics, as nearly all young Turks do in university. Eventually, I started writing about politics as well. Because you know what they say: If you want to learn something, write about it.

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Oh, I learned it pretty well, and I learned it the (somewhat) hard way.

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Facing Jail Time with a Blog Post

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2010 was probably my darkest year in my entire life. (2016 is the next candidate.) I was 22 years old, blogging daily, learning about web design and WordPress (more on that later), and keeping up with what’s going on with the country. Things were crazy back then: A very big prosecution was going on called the Ergenekon Case about military people allegedly planning a coup (Hint: This is not the coup I mentioned in the intro! These guys were all acquitted later.) and a big campaign for a constitutional referandum was more than enough to keep the whole country busy.

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In December 2010, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, the Prime Minister of the time (and the President since 2014) sued me for one of my blog posts. It was about one of the slogans he used in his referandum rallies (“The terrorists and the opposition parties are soul mates!”) and me using the same sentence against him. Like, the exact same sentence. He didn’t like the way that the slogan was used against him, so he reported me and the state brought charges against me. I was 22 and I was being sued by the most powerful man in the country, because I used his words against him.

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When the Prime Minister sues you, you go to jail. There were little to no instances of winning a case against the government, especially when they were the one suing you. Thankfully, I was one of the few instances: I won the case in my third trial, February 14, 2012. (“Lovely” day, isn’t it?)

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There were one downside though: With the fear of the government suing me, I stopped writing about politics in 2011 and 2012, and even a few months after I won. And to this day, even though that fear is long gone, and even though I’m writing about politics again on Beyn, I still can’t write regularly like I did back then.

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Anyways. Moving on with the “web development” phase of my life.

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Learning to Develop WordPress, and Teaching It at the Same Time

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When I started Beyn, I immediately loved WordPress. I had some experience on HTML and CSS on Dreamweaver (never was a FrontPage guy), and I happily retired DW because I won’t be able to work on it while I was learning WordPress.

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I don’t remember trying to learn something with such passion. I loved the idea of plugins and themes extending the core. Beyn became my playground for new tricks, my laboratory for new experiments about WordPress. I installed plugins, edited themes, learned what’s right and what’s wrong with what I did… I probably crashed the website more than a hundred times!

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By 2012, I’d already started making websites for other people and getting paid. I had developed a few plugins, made a couple of themes from scratch. While still learning what awesome things I’m able to do with WordPress, I applied for a small writing gig at Wptuts+, which was later renamed Tuts+ Code. Because you know what they say: If you want to learn something, write about it.

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That “small writing gig” was in fact my biggest source of education. I wasn’t a WordPress expert, but that gig was the ultimate reason to learn more and more about WordPress. I remember constantly feeling that “I’ve finished telling about everything I know about WordPress, so now I have to learn more!” and doing research on things to write about.

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I was aware that I don’t have any chance to write a sloppy tutorial, so I nagged my editors (first Japh Thomson, then Tom McFarlin) about my writing style, my choice of topics and of course, my English. They said my English was very good, and my topics are relevant and suitable for publishing on Tuts+. In almost exactly four years (from April 2012 to March 2016), I wrote 134 posts and I’m very proud of (almost) all my work there.

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While it was sad to leave Tuts+, I had a project in my mind that I put off so long: Optimocha.

2015 was also the year with a whole lot of terrorist attacks. PKK, a terrorist organization pretending to defend Kurds’ rights (while giving a bad name for all Kurds countrywide) and ISIS (you know them) were the most active terrorist organizations in 2015. They killed more than 250 people and injured more than 1000 in a series of shootings and bombings throughout the year.

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Worst year ever, right? Not even close. Let me quickly summarize the hell we’ve been through:

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ISIS killed 116 people in 5 different attacks.

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PKK killed 176 people in 15 different attacks.

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TAK, PKK’s even uglier cousin, killed 43 people in 4 different attacks.

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FETO killed 248 people across the country in their coup d’état attempt on July 15.

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583 people killed in terrorist attacks in 2016. So, just a few more than all those lovely celebrities.

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What’s that FETO sticking out among the others, attempting a coup? That’s FEthullahist Terrorist Organization: The organization of Fethullah Gülen, an Islamic cult leader comfortably residing in Pennsylvania, plotting to take over the government for (I kid you not) over 40 years. Even I had made peace with the President because of the much needed “purges” to scrape his crypto-disciples in the government organizations. FETO is one of the enemies that can let you make peace with the ones against your values.

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(By the way: While celebrating that we got rid off that horror show of 2016, ISIS killed 39 more people with an AK-47 in a New Year party on January 1, in the middle of the night.)

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Still waiting for the part where I founded Optimocha, right? Sorry it took a bit long.

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April 2016 was the month I registered my company by paying for the usual fees to register a sole proprietorship, accountant fees, rent for an office (because by law, you can’t register a company without an office), some paperwork. All my funds vanished, leaving me with nothing to spend on marketing.

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PayPal halted operations in Turkey on June, because of conflicts with the government. 2CheckOut followed. I was going to use 2CO, so I was left with no payment gateway provider. Along with the terrorist attacks, I decided to spend Ramadan (the holy month for Muslims, passed on June 2016) sleeping, lying and moping around with depression.

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At the beginning of July, I was ready to work again, amped up for success! Except the coup attempt happened. Bombs and sonic booms in my city. Back to depression.

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By October, I was almost ready to go live with the website. I didn’t. I forced myself to finish it in November, before Black Friday. I did! People responded to my emails, said they’ll publish my deal on their blogs. People who saw the deal also responded and purchased my services. Yay.

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Conclusion

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Blogging is hard. Blogging with the most powerful man in your country trying to lock you up is the hardest.

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Solopreneurship is hard. Solopreneurship with several, highly active terrorist organizations killing people next to you is the hardest.

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Yet, and I’m sure this is going to sound cheesy, I have hope. This is the price we have to pay in order to get rid of the scum in the world. Turkey isn’t the worst country in the world suffering from terror–we’re just a country stuck between Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Africa. (Talk about a rock and a hard place…) We will survive this, and this too will pass.

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Turkey may be viewed as “yet another Middle Eastern country”, but it was founded almost a hundred years ago with the heritage of the Ottoman Empire, but also with a Western, secular mindset. Even today, you can’t find a sensible person talking trash about Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who declined the Ottoman monarchy to set the foundation of a democratic republic in a time of dictatorships across Europe and Asia. Emphasis on the words “even today”, because the principles of his vision of the Republic of Turkey is in danger, a very large portion of the country has the confidence and equipment to defend those principles.

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Again: We will survive this, and this too will pass. You have my word.

Because of the impact of the book, I ended up adopting a few New Year’s intentions long before January 1st — things to ruminate on and keep in mind as the year wound down. The outlook of the world seemed uncertain, and I’m learning to navigate the world without my father.

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Yellow Arrows

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The Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage path in Spain that people have walked since the 9th century AD. The 500 mile path winds through mountains, fields, and sometimes cities, and many pilgrims take a month or more on it. In some ways it is similar to the Kumano Kodo walk I did with Dan and Craig last year.

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There are places where the path isn’t exactly clear, either because the trail isn’t strong, there’s been growth, or you might be in a crowded urban area like a city. Over the years pilgrims and people who live on the trail have marked it with yellow arrows pointing the way. If someone gets lost or confused, it’s an opportunity for an additional sign to bring them back on track.

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When you know the path, is it clear where someone else walking it should go next? It’s an interesting concept that applies across life. In your relationships, does your friend, loved one, or partner know what to expect, and where you’re headed together? Even in WordPress I feel like there are too many places where we bring someone to a fork in the road and there is no clear indication which way they should take.

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Give some thought to the yellow arrows in your life, and I’ll write more about the other two things I’ve been thinking about tomorrow. Also don’t forget to pick up a copy of Kamal’s book. I loved it and I think it will be one I’m recommending to many friends.

Year In WP is a new site by Jesper van Engelen that creates a personalized review of a user’s contributions to WordPress in 2016. Entering the WordPress.org username of a plugin or theme author or a WordPress core contributor into the field generates a list of statistics that includes:

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Profile information

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Number of times their plugins and themes were downloaded

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Most downloaded plugins and themes

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Average number of downloads per week

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Plugin and theme review rating average

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Percentage of five-star ratings

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A selection of five-star reviews

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Number of commits, changes, and comments to WordPress core

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Number of WordPress releases contributed to

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Engelen got the idea to create the site in 2014 after Spotify launched its ‘Year in Music‘ that highlighted trends based on what 50 million users listened too.

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“I’d been active in the WordPress plugin market for about four years at that point, and I figured it would be really cool to get some year-over-year insight into your WordPress plugins,” Engelen said.

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“Having become a partner at Admin Columns (a freemium WordPress plugin) in 2014, I found out that I really liked analyzing statistics of downloads, sales and other data, and that, properly grouped and reported, they could have a pretty big influence on decision-making from a business perspective.”

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Engelen started the site by experimenting with fetching data from WordPress.org through its API that would show the change in the number of downloads to a user’s plugins.

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“That is basically what lead to the ‘Your most popular plugins’ overview page,” Engelen said. “Spending some free hours each week on working on the project, more and more ideas of data to include popped up.”

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The site displays a lot of data, but it doesn’t include everything. Engelen would like to eventually display sections for contributions to WordPress translations, plugins, themes, core, design, etc.

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The Technical Details

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The data displayed on Year in WordPress is gathered using the WordPress.org API, subversion, and web scraping. Engelen would have used the WordPress REST API but it was not available at the time, “Fetching the reviews and support topics yielded quite a bit of annoyance, as they’re done by scraping,” he said.

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He uses a Python framework to fetch relevant data in parallel. The data is stored in an SQL database, which is accessed by a front-end tool. The front-end of the site features jQuery that was reused from AdminColumns.com.

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“jQuery, combined with Chart.js and Fullpage.js power the interactive portion of Year in WordPress. I’ve also written some simple sentiment analysis code for filtering out the most popular reviews to show for each plugin/theme developer,” Engelen said.

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Fun Facts about Year in WordPress

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Engelen provided the Tavern with these fun facts related to Year in WordPress:

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There’s a Year in Review for about 100,000 users on WordPress.org — or all users who have contributed to a plugin or theme, created a review or a support ticket, or contributed to WordPress core.

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The full database takes about 500MB of space.

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There were 364,763,308 plugin/theme downloads in 2015, and 434,865,745 in 2016. That’s 19.2% growth!

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2016 was the first year where the number of new core Trac tickets shrunk (4,044 in 2014; 4,392 in 2015; 4,028 in 2016)

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73% of all plugins received zero reviews in 2016

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Year in WordPress 2017 Is Not Guaranteed

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Engelen is not making any promises for continued development in 2017 as it’s contingent on his free time. However, the main thing he would like to change is to include a wider spectrum of data.

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“When I pitched the idea of Year in WordPress to a core committer and showed the beta version, he said ‘there’s so much more than core itself’ and that stuck with me,” he said.

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“The perfect ‘Year in WordPress’ would feature cool statistics about all types of contributions people make to WordPress — whether it’s creating plugins and themes, writing code for core, translating or testing. Furthermore, I’m really looking forward to making use of all of the REST API’s that I can use this time around.”

WordPress core doesn’t make it easy to edit text strings, but a little plugin called Say What? has been quietly gaining a solid user base by providing this functionality. It allows users to edit text strings without editing WordPress core or plugin code. Lee Willis released Say What in 2013, but the plugin had a significant jump in users in 2016, doubling the number of active installs from 5,000 to 10,000 sites.

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Willis, who is the author of 22 plugins hosted on WordPress.org and many more commercial extensions, created Say What while working as a Drupal developer.

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“One of our must-install Drupal modules was called String Overrides, which inspired Say What?” he said. “At the agency I was working at we used it regularly on virtually every site build to override plugin, theme, and core strings in a ‘non-hacky’ way. Given that, I knew that the problem was there to be solved on WordPress, and that something that worked well would be useful to people.”

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Say What adds a new screen for editing text under Tools > Text changes for configuring string replacements. Users enter the current string, text domain, and replacement text.

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This plugin is a good option for those who are not comfortable sifting through PHP files and adding a filter to change the text. If you just have a handful of strings to replace, it’s more convenient than using a translation tool like POEDIT to edit the language files. All of the text changes are listed together in the Say What admin panel, so they can be easily changed at any time without editing any files.

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Willis said users don’t often experience conflicts with themes and plugins, as there is so little frontend functionality included in the plugin.

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“The main areas of support tend to be around locating particular strings, or issues where broken custom code is breaking the filters that Say What uses,” Willis said. After speaking with friends at a WordCamp in March 2015, he decided to create a commercial version to address this issue and a number of other feature requests.

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“The free version was out for about two years before I launched the Pro version,” Willis said. “The only issue people tended to have with the free version was around finding the information they needed for the ‘original string,’ so I decided to build out the String Discovery feature as the first feature of the Pro version. This lets users search for the string using autocomplete functionality, making it much easier to set up replacements without delving through theme or plugin code.”

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Say What increased in popularity in 2016 and has maintained a 4.6-star rating on WordPress.org. It is becoming more frequently recommended by support teams of other plugins when customers ask about how to change text strings.

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“It’s great to know that it’s being used to help people build more future-proof sites without resorting to hacking plugin or core code just to change strings,” Willis said. “Even for people familiar with plugin and theme code, the String Discovery feature makes it a lot easier and quicker to set up replacements. It’s had a few new features over the last year, including support for multi-line, and single/plural style replacements.”

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Willis said his Pro version proved to be fairly popular during 2016 and became one of his highest selling plugins. He recently added support for multilingual sites, the most often requested feature, allowing users to set up different replacements for different languages.

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Willis does not have an extensive roadmap for the plugin, as he prefers to keep it uncomplicated and free of clutter. “I’m a big believer in plugins that do one thing, and do it well,” he said.

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Say What is another successful instance of a developer solving one of his own problems and striking upon a successful commercial product. Willis said he didn’t fully anticipate how popular the plugin would become.

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“As with most of my plugins it was also built to solve a problem that I personally was having at the time,” he said. “That said, I’m always (pleasantly) surprised when something does get popular.”

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After testing Say What I found that Willis’ implementation is the simplest way for non-technical users to make a few simple string changes without the risk of breaking their websites. He is also very responsive on the support forums. The success of the Pro version is a good indication that Willis will be able to continue support and maintenance on the free plugin for the foreseeable future.

This opinion piece was contributed by guest author Peter Suhm. Peter is a web developer from the Land of the Danes. He is the creator of WP Pusher and a huge travel addict, bringing his work along with him as he goes.\n

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Laravel Forge is a server and application provisioning tool that was originally built to serve the Laravel PHP crowd. Recently, it has been made available to WordPress developers too, with the introduction of 1-click installs of WordPress on Digital Ocean, Linode and AWS cloud servers. In this post, I’ll give you a brief introduction to Laravel Forge and show you how you can use it to manage all of your WordPress installations in the cloud.

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Laravel Forge is good news for WordPress developers

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Because so many WordPress developers are used to managed hosting, the thought of running their own servers seem quite intimidating. That’s a shame with so many great cloud server companies offering virtual servers for very low costs. Unless your traffic is very heavy, a small ($5 to $10 per month) server can run quite a few WordPress websites. Laravel Forge takes care of provisioning your servers and can even setup your database and install WordPress for you. This makes cloud hosting much more available to WordPress developers at a low cost (Laravel Forge is $15 per month for unlimited servers), compared to many of the existing options.

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Here are a few reasons why I think Laravel Forge is great for WordPress hosting:

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Your servers are configured in a secure way by default, with SSH authentication, firewalls, automatic security updates and free SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt

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Your servers are going to be really fast with PHP 7

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You can run a lot of WordPress installs on 1 single server *

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You can scale your servers if you need more horse power *

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* Goes for the cloud in general

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Creating a new server

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Here is how the “Create Server” screen looks in Forge:

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If you use Digital Ocean, Forge can also create your servers. If you use another provider like Linode or AWS, Forge can only do the provisioning part.

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For Digital Ocean servers, here are the options you can configure:

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Which credentials to use, if you are managing multiple Digital Ocean accounts

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The server name

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The server size

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The server region

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The PHP version

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The default database name

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You can then choose to:

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Configure the server as a load balancer (if you have really heavy traffic and is running WordPress across multiple servers)

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Install MariaDB instead of MySQL, which is a drop-in, faster replacement

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Enable weekly backups on Digital Ocean

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When Laravel Forge is done with the provisioning, your server is ready to go.

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Setting up a database

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Once your server has been created, setting up a database for your WordPress installation is very easy. You can create the user at the same time you’re creating the database, or you can create the user afterwards.

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Installing WordPress

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Before you install WordPress, you need to create a new “site” on your server. You can just stick with the defaults:

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For the “Root Domain”, you need to add the domain name of the site you are setting up. Remember that you need to add a DNS record for your domain that points to the IP address of your newly created server. If you are just testing, you can always add a record in your computer’s hosts file with a test domain that points to your server. Something like this:

Once you click the “Add Site” button, you will see a spinning wheel while Forge is setting up your site’s nginx configuration.

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When the installation is done, you need to click the “Manage” icon next to your site in order to install WordPress. The first screen you will be presented with gives you the option to install an “App” on your site. Click the “WordPress” button, select your database and user from the previous step and relax while Laravel Forge completes the installation. Fun fact: Laravel Forge is actually using WP-CLI to install WordPress on your server.

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When the installation has completed, visit your site in a browser and you’ll be met with something familiar:

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Setting up a free SSL certificate

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Finally, you should set up SSL for your WordPress site. It’s more secure and Google likes it!

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Head over on the “SSL” tab and click the “LetsEncrypt (Beta)” button. Click the “Obtain Certificate” button and wait while Forge creates and installs the certificate. Once the certificate is installed, click the “Activate” icon and voila! Your site is now all set up and secured with SSL.

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That’s how easy it is to setup WordPress on a cloud server with Laravel Forge. I hope to see a lot of more products and tools like this that can help us building better, faster, and more secure WordPress websites. In fact, Laravel Forge was the original inspiration for my own product WP Pusher. I wanted to create a similar experience, but for WordPress plugins and themes instead.

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Note on backups and security

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Please note that even though Laravel Forge makes for a great starting point, ultimately you are the one in charge of the security of your servers. You should always try to educate yourself about security and have a backup strategy for your data.

Every year since 2010, WordPress has shipped with a new default theme, breaking the cycle of Kubrick being the primary default theme for years before that.

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In 2010, the default theme was called Twenty Ten. In 2011, the default theme was called Twenty Eleven. You get the idea.

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While every default theme has been unique in its own way, Twenty Seventeen was particularly compelling in a way we haven’t seen in a default theme since Twenty Fourteen.

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Twenty Fourteen was the first theme that really made people think WordPress could be used for more than “just a blog” on a mass scale. It is a magazine theme.

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Twenty Seventeen — released with WordPress 4.7 — is the first theme that really made people think WordPress could be used for more than “just publishing content” on a mass scale. It is a business theme.

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Prior to WordPress 4.7, I contributed by helping out in the support forums and building accessible themes. But I had never contributed to core before.

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When I saw the previews, I knew I wanted to contribute, and began to follow development on GitHub to see if there was anything that I could lend my talents to and eventually make my first core contributions.

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When I saw Morten Rand-Hendriksen open an issue about replacing icon fonts with SVG icons, I knew I had found the perfect “in” to start contributing to core.

Contributing SVG icons system to Twenty Seventeen

Development started in GitHub, where fellow contributors would create issues and submit pull requests.

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Then, everything moved to WordPress SVN, where new patches were submitted.

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I’ll summarize what I learned in the process.

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What I learned about contributing

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I regret not keeping a diary. Not necessarily to keep track of what I contributed, since that’s all documented in the open.

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But rather things like my emotional state. My feelings ranged from despair to overwhelming joy throughout my contribution experience.

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I learned new things about code and collaborating with others in GitHub and SVN. Again, something not necessarily documented in patches and the like.

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Git workflow

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I’m not good with Git, and still don’t fully understand how rebasing works. I messed up my commits a couple of times. Not a big deal, but I got different error messages no matter which workflow I tried. I realized that I need to know more about Git, and be more patient.

Follow the development through to the end, and beyond

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I started out by replacing only the social link icon fonts to SVG icons. Soon, I realized that a step-by-step process was not going to work because of new related commits coming in all the time that potentially conflicted with my code.

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It was better to replace all icon fonts, not just the social ones, with SVGs, and then work from there. I was also keeping track of style changes in RTL languages and IE8.

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At this point, the work was just getting started.

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Once you start contributing, you shouldn’t just disappear with no explanation. If you’re running low on time or have other obligations, it’s totally understandable, but be sure to politely inform others you can’t continue anymore, so they can pick up where you left off.

Coding standards and automated tests

As you can see in my first commits, I didn’t pass the WordPress coding standards. I needed to be more precise and follow the coding standards to the tee. With enough practice, I’m sure it’s possible to write standards-compliant code “naturally” but I was looking for a way to automate the code checks.

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I tried to get Atom to evaluate my code on the fly, but I just couldn’t get it to work. Like my Git experience, I got different error messages no matter what I tried.

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Eventually, I was able to use PHPCS via the command line, and fixed any issues discovered manually. But it would’ve been nice to have those checks automated.

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Working with batches in SVN

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Once the development moved to SVN, I began to get a little worried. As I described earlier, not too long ago, I was struggling just to use Git. However, thanks to the following tutorials I quickly got up to speed.

Technical overview of the SVG icons system

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I adapted this contribution from the code and concepts first presented by others.

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WebDevStudios has their own starter theme called wd_s. I really like how they set up SVG icons and we fine-tuned them in Twenty Seventeen. Perhaps they will integrate those improvements back into their own project. Again, open source rocks.

All the main SVG-related functions can be found in the inc/icon-functions.php file. It’s well-documented in the code, but here’s a summary:

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Include the SVG sprite file via the wp_footer hook.

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twentyseventeen_get_svg() function returns the SVG icon markup. In most cases, the SVG icon is injected in template files or via hooks and filters. In some cases, the SVG icon is injected via JavaScript.

Default themes are tested before release in many platforms and browsers. And default themes are used on so many sites that any remaining bugs will be found after the release.

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Building default themes really is a community driven project. I’d like to say extra thanks for couple of people.

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Special thank you

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Any web project needs good leadership, design, and code. Those were all covered in Twenty Seventeen.

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David A. Kennedy was leading the project and kept everything rolling. He had a really friendly touch and he was open to ideas. At the same time he wasn’t afraid to make decisions; for example, a flexbox layout was rejected for this theme.

Who knows if I would’ve contributed if it wasn’t for him posting that. Remember, reporting issues and bugs is contributing too, and can inspire first-time contributors like me to stop sitting on the sidelines and finally get started with core contributions.

Let’s Encrypt has just closed out its first full year as a certificate authority with more than 20 million active certificates. The free and open certificate authority focuses on lowering the complexity of setting up TLS encryption by making the process more automated. It came out of beta in April 2016 and the number of certificates issued per day has grown steadily since then.

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“At the start of 2016, Let’s Encrypt certificates had been available to the public for less than a month and we were supporting approximately 240,000 active (unexpired) certificates,” said Josh Aas, Executive Director of the non-profit Internet Security Research Group (ISRG). “Now we’re frequently issuing that many new certificates in a single day while supporting more than 20,000,000 active certificates in total. We’ve issued more than a million certificates in a single day a few times recently.”

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Let’s Encrypt operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and has received more than three dozen corporate sponsorships and grants, but funds for the coming year have fallen short. In November, Let’s Encrypt launched a crowdfunding campaign to cover the cost of one month of operating expenses. So far, the campaign has raised more than $100K towards its $200K fundraising goal.

Let’s Encrypt is used with some larger organizations, such as WordPress.com, OVH, Shopify, Akamai, and Dreamhost, but the vast majority of users are smaller entities that were not previously encrypted. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a founding sponsor of the certificate authority, most of Let’s Encrypt’s growth has not come from taking customers away from competitors:

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\nOne of the ways Let’s Encrypt has been helping to secure the web is by making it easy and affordable for sites that have never had certs before to turn on secure HTTPS connections, and for software systems to start enabling HTTPS automatically and by default. Our free certificates may be more likely to be left unused than expensive certificates, and less expert webmasters may accidentally duplicate certificates—but that’s part of making HTTPS integration available to more webmasters across a range of resource and skill levels. Statistics suggest that most of our growth has come not at the expense of other CAs, but from giving previously unencrypted sites their first-ever certificates.

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EFF analyzed various sources of usage statistics and estimates that Let’s Encrypt is now the largest certificate authority on the web. Its rapid adoption has spurred impressive progress towards getting the entire web encrypted. Let’s Encrypt tracks progress by measuring the percentage of page loads using HTTPS, as seen by browsers.

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“According to Firefox Telemetry, the Web has gone from approximately 39% of page loads using HTTPS each day to just about 49% during the past year,” Aas said in Let’s Encrypt’s 2016 in Review report. “We’re incredibly close to a Web that is more encrypted than not.”

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The proliferation of Let’s Encrypt client options in 2016 puts the certificate authority in an even better position to continue driving web encryption in 2017. Aas attributes last year’s progress to many organizations advocating for HTTPS and working to get their sites encrypted. His team has grown from four full-time employees to nine, and he anticipates that 2017 will be a year of even greater growth.

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“Much of the infrastructure and many of the plans necessary for a 100% encrypted Web came into being or solidified in 2016,” Aas said. “More and more hosting providers and CDNs are supporting HTTPS with one click or by default, often without additional fees. It has never been easier for people and organizations running their own sites to find the tools, services, and information they need to move to HTTPS.”

When a friend of mine asked for suggestions on what he should use to create a new site, I suggested WordPress. It is well supported, has an amazing community, and a ton of free themes and plugins to choose from. After getting WordPress installed on a new webhosting account, I left him be to see what issues he would run into and how he would configure the site.

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After noticing the site was loading slowly three weeks later, I obtained admin access to try to determine what the problem was. The first thing I did was check which plugins he installed. One of the plugins added the ability to embed YouTube videos on the site using shortcodes. My friend was unaware that WordPress has oEmbed support which allows users to easily embed videos by pasting the URL into the editor.

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He also installed a couple of other plugins that mimicked core functionality. He was unaware that WordPress does most of the things he wants without the need for plugins.

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Page Builder Shenanigans

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After activating a theme that was compatible with the SportsPress plugin, he installed the MotoPress Content Editor. MotoPress Content Editor is a front-end page builder that enables users to visually construct pages. The front page of the site was a long vertical column filled with information that mimicked blog posts.

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Because he didn’t understand how WordPress works, he forgot to configure the site to display the latest posts instead of using a front page. What he ended up doing is recreating the blog post layout on the static front page using the MotoPress Content Editor. He also added a lot of page builder elements such as YouTube videos to the page which was a contributing factor to the site’s poor loading times.

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Page builders are a tool that can make building sites and pages more convenient, but in the wrong hands, they can help users ruin their sites. I replaced the video elements with a text widget that displays the latest video from a YouTube channel. Since he was mimicking the blog post layout on a static page, I configured the site to display the latest blog posts first.

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Once I fixed these issues, I removed the page builder and explained to my friend why it was unnecessary. He was recreating WordPress functionality and doing unnecessary work without realizing it.

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This experience makes me wonder how many other newer WordPress users end up in a similar situation. They don’t know what WordPress is capable of out-of-the-box and they end up installing a myriad of plugins with descriptions that sound similar to the features they want. I spent about a week undoing all of the work my friend did in three. Had I not stepped in, the site would likely not scale and its performance would decrease further.

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Getting New Users Started on the Right Track

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In early 2015, a community initiative dubbed NUX Working Group was created to brainstorm ideas on how to improve the new user experiences throughout the WordPress admin. While the group initially had a head of steam, it lost a lot of momentum last year. I’d like to see it re-emerge and work in concert with the focus-based approach to developing WordPress this year.

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How can WordPress explain to new users what its capable of without drowning them in technical information? Is it feasible to create something that caters to the majority without explaining every feature in detail? Admin Pointers were introduced in WordPress 3.3 and while they’re typically used to introduce new features in a release, they don’t act as a guided tour to what WordPress can do.

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Education is likely a key component to improving the new user experience. WordPress.com has a 12-step beginner’s guide that walks people through the process of configuring and customizing their sites. For self-hosted WordPress users, there’s a New to WordPress – Where to Start guide that covers what WordPress is, choosing a host, and considerations to keep in mind. However, much of the information is technical in nature.

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If you’re a consultant or coach who works with people new to WordPress, how do you handle the educational part of your projects? What are the most common roadblocks that they encounter? Do you have a custom-made getting started guide or do you forward them to a site with video tutorials like WordPress.TV or WP101?

This post was contributed by guest author Taylor Lovett. Lovett is based in the Washington DC area, is the Director of Web Engineering at 10up, creator of ElasticPress, and general open source enthusiast.\n

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In February 2016, the WordPress Foundation announced the WordCamp incubator program, focused on spreading WordPress and open source values to remote areas of the world through extra hands-on support to first time WordCamps. WordCamp Denpasar, which took place in Bali’s capital city, is the first of three camps to be supported as a part of the program — other WordCamps include Harare and Medellín. As Director of Web Engineering at 10up, I was sent to attend and speak at the inaugural event. Our company values open source projects and the WordPress community, so we’re proud to support emerging communities by attending events like this.

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The incubator program supports WordCamps by providing them with an experienced organizer. In Denpasar’s case, Rocio Valdivia, a Community Wrangler for Automattic, was the WordCamp Incubator sponsored organizer. According to Ivan Kristianto, the lead organizer for WordCamp Denpasar, “Rocio was a hands-on consultant provided by the WordPress Foundation to help incubate the camp. She helped [us] in budgeting, managing the organizers, submission timelines, and more”.

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WordCamp Denpasar attracted 180 attendees, twice the initial goal. Many attendees came from other parts of Indonesia to attend the Camp, which bubbled with an aura of excitement as Indonesia has not had a WordCamp in over three years. The venue, the Royal Beach Seminyak Hotel, was of ample size and served the crowd well. There was a single session track, mixed with user, business, and developer topics. Lunch included a nice buffet featuring local Balinese cuisine. Overall, the WordCamp attendance, venue, and amenities were quite impressive.

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The speaker lineup was diverse, with speakers from Indonesia, Australia, Europe, Japan, and the United States. Attendees were extremely enthusiastic throughout the sessions and actively engaged in questions. I was last to speak, presenting on NodeifyWP and Twenty Sixteen React. WordCamp Denpasar was the debut presentation of our new isomorphic JavaScript framework. The crowd was extremely excited to hear my presentation and attendees were grateful 10up choose Bali as a first occasion to show the framework. After my talk, I received more questions than could fit in the allotted time slot.

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In the weeks after the Camp, I talked with Rocio about the overall success of the event and Incubator program as a whole. Rocio believed the WordCamp went extremely well. She cited some key events that followed the inaugural camp:

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The local Indonesian meetup group has grown to more than 50 new members across different groups.

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The existing WP Meetup Bekasi group in Indonesia has applied to join the Meetup chapter program.

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The non-active WP Meetup of Jakarta has now two members interested in re-activating the group and have applied to join the chapter program. They are also interested in organizing WordCamp Jakarta 2017.

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The WordPress Foundation has received an application for organizing WordCamp Ubud in 2017 (one hour from Denpasar) which is in pre-planning now.

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A WP Indonesia Slack channel is being created to connect the whole community in the country.

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Clearly, WordCamp Denpasar has had a positive effect on the Indonesian WordPress community. As more areas of the world getting involved contributing to and using WordPress, the project’s internationalization and diversity improves. If Denpasar is any indication, expanding the incubator program to more areas of the world will have long-lasting benefits within the entire WordPress community.

WordPress core development is kicking off in 2017 with the new focus-based development process that Matt Mullenweg announced during the 2016 State of the Word. The new approach to releases shifts WordPress from the familiar time-based release cycle to one that is more project-based. The idea is that design and user testing will lead the way and upcoming releases will ship when significant user-facing improvements are ready.

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Mullenweg, who will serve as the overall product lead for 2017, announced tech and design leads for each of the three focus areas: the REST API, the editor, and the customizer.

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“For the REST API we’re going to work on getting first party wp-admin usage of the new endpoints, and hopefully replace all of the core places where we still use admin-ajax,” Mullenweg said. The REST API team nominated Ryan McCue and K.Adam White to take the lead on the objectives Mullenweg outlined, as well as infrastructure and endpoint performance, security, and improvements to authentication options and documentation.

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“The editor will endeavor to create a new page and post building experience that makes writing rich posts effortless, and has ‘blocks’ to make it easy what today might take shortcodes, custom HTML, or ‘mystery meat’ embed discovery,” Mullenweg said. Automattic employees Matias Ventura and Joen Asmussen will be taking point on the editor.

Mullenweg’s proposed direction for the customizer team is to “help out the editor at first, then shift to bring those fundamental building blocks into something that could allow customization ‘outside of the box’ of post_content, including sidebars and possibly even an entire theme.” Weston Ruter and Mel Choyce will be taking the lead on the customizer focus.

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Ruter and contributors have been working on a project called JS Widgets that uses the Customize API to power the next generation of JavaScript-widgets in core. It opens the door for managing widgets via the REST API and ties in nicely with all three focus areas.

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A preliminary discussion on upcoming Customizer priorities cropped up in the comments. Nick Halsey, co-maintainer of the customize component, responded to the proposal of having the customizer help out the editor at first. He believes the best approach is to create the new editor within the Customize API, giving it live previews from the start.

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“Improving the editor within an ‘admin’ interface that lacks live preview doesn’t address the fundamental problems with the current content editing experience and creates something that still has to be entirely rebuilt and reimagined within a live preview context eventually,” Halsey said. “If the editor is built on the Customize API first, rather than rethinking the editor and then bringing it into the live preview API, the customize and editor contributors would be able to join forces to focus on improving the content editing experience much more effectively.”

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It will be interesting to see what direction Mullenweg and the leads decide to take in the foundational task of architecting the new editing experience. Mullenweg made it clear in the State of the Word address that he would like to see Calypso or a similar interface replace wp-admin in the future. However, Calypso was not built using the Customize API, WordPress’ own single page application admin interface that plugins and themes already widely support.

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After WordCamp US, I asked Mullenweg about his intentions for Calypso in relationship to WordPress core. He said the application was “designed to be in core someday,” which is one reason they selected the same license and made it open source.

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“My real hope is that it is something that is ready for core someday – both Calypso the interface and the concept.” Mullenweg said. “That’s why I said Calypso or something like it. There’s obviously a lot of WordPress.com stuff in Calypso that will never be in core. If we think of a wp-admin replacement, it would be replacing wp-admin with the parts that Calypso does that are the same thing, kind of more of the my sites section of it. But I do believe the future of a great wp-admin experience is JavaScript – probably React, talking to APIs, super fast, and maybe even working offline.”

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Automattic is actively recruiting popular plugin authors to make their plugins Calypso-aware. Demonstrating the application’s interoperability with the WordPress plugin ecosystem is a must before Calypso can be considered a promising replacement for the WordPress admin. In the meantime, the foundation for a new page and post building experience is being laid with consideration for how the customizer can improve the editor.

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Mullenweg responded to comments on the post indicating that feature plugins or other improvements to WordPress outside of the three focus areas would need to continue on as plugins for the time being. However, performance improvements may be included in minor releases.

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“What goes in a minor release will broaden a bit, which I know is something we have to approach carefully, but performance is very important and improvements will be something I will consider for being in a minor release,” Mullenweg said. Contributors are currently working on WordPress 4.7.1, which is planned for release on Tuesday, January 10.

Developer Manton Reece is on a mission to take back short form content for the open web by providing better tools for independent microblogging. Most short form content today is posted through centralized social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, where posts are mixed with promoted content and users have no control of their timelines. There’s no guarantee that these social networks will be around forever, as many before them have disappeared, eclipsed by new ways to connect online.

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Reece set out to create Micro.blog, a timeline and publishing platform for the open web, as an alternative social network that encourages more independent writing. He launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the platform along with his work on a book called Indie Microblogging. The project’s $10K goal was fully funded on the first day and has passed $22,000 on the second day of the campaign.

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Micro.blog has a timeline experience similar to Twitter with replies and favorites, but the main difference is that it is based on RSS, pulling posts from independent sites. Those who don’t have their own websites will be able to opt for a hosted microblog and map a custom domain. Users with hosted microblogs can post via a web interface that includes a Markdown editor or use the service’s iPhone app.

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Micro.blog Will Integrate with WordPress

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Reece, who self-hosts his own blog on WordPress, will be launching Micro.blog with full integration for WordPress users, making it easy to cross post between the two platforms. I asked him about the workflow for publishing from WordPress and he said his Indie Microblogging book will contain a section specifically on WordPress.

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“After you’ve told Micro.blog about your WordPress RSS feed, you can continue to post to your blog as you normally would, although I’ll have some tips for taking the best advantage of it,” Reece said. “There’s also a native iPhone app for Micro.blog that supports direct posting to WordPress. I’ve found that it really improves the user experience to have a single app with a timeline experience, replies, favorites, as well as easy posting directly to your own site. But there’s no requirement to use any specific app.”

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Reece said he plans to implement a very strict, reverse-chronological timeline for content that users are following. He also does not plan to introduce any algorithms or advertising. Basic accounts will be free and the plan is to sustain the platform with revenue from a paid plan that includes extra features like microblog hosting.

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“One thing that is very important to me is not letting someone you don’t follow interrupt your timeline with harassment or other replies that aren’t appropriate,” Reece said. “I’m working on some features around this that I hope will help avoid similar issues that Twitter has faced in its community, for example. So if there are any custom algorithms or curation it will be around trying to deal with abuse before it happens.”

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The Micro.blog platform is currently built using Ruby, Sinatra, Ember.js, MySQL, and Redis. Reece said he is in the process of rewriting some of the app with a more traditional Ruby on Rails setup.

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“Ember didn’t end up being a great fit for the design,” Reece said. “There is also a portion of the microblog publishing engine built on Jekyll, so that themes and data files can be more portable.”

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Micro.blog isn’t entirely distributed where users host their own “pods” like Diaspora, but Reece said he is open to making it more decentralized in the future.

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“It’s a good goal to eventually move to something even more distributed, but it introduces a lot of complexity, which has prevented most of those kind of solutions from taking off,” Reece said. “I hope that Micro.blog is a step in the right direction, encouraging people to write more on their own site even for short microblog posts, instead of just Twitter and Facebook, with more open formats and APIs. It’s more achievable if we can build off of tools like WordPress instead of starting over.”

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Reece said he thinks WordPress.com (Automattic) is one of only a couple web publishing companies he believes could last 100 years. “Only 2 companies keep coming to mind: WordPress.com and GitHub,” he said in a post about mirroring his blog to GitHub. “I believe both will last for decades, maybe even 100 years, and both embrace the open web in a way that most other centralized web sites do not.”

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During his 14 years of blogging and 10 years of using Twitter, Reece became an advocate for the open web. He said he used to be excited about Twitter and built apps for the platform but grew disillusioned at their approach to locking down the API.

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“We’ve been so focused on writing on Twitter and Facebook that we’ve gotten away from more independent publishing that makes blogs and the open web great,” Reece said. “I think microblogging has a place on the open web, and that posting to a blog and reading posts from friends can have just as great a user experience as using a traditional social network. I’ve already heard from many people who have been inspired recently to blog again, which is really the main goal of Micro.blog.”

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The Micro.blog Kickstarter campaign will end in 27 days. Reece said he was surprised the project was funded so quickly. He plans to work hard over the next month to roll out Micro.blog to everyone.

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“I can’t wait to see how users use the service, how the book can help WordPress users expand their existing blogs, and what developers want to build on the APIs going forward,” Reece said.

Topher asked me to write an article for HeroPress as we sat together in an alcove in the Philly Convention Center. I was in a vulnerable space. My lightning talk at WordCamp US had concluded, and I was settling into the experience of being at another WordCamp. I thought about the life experiences that brought me to my second presentation a year later, and I started to cry. Below is why.

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One of my earliest memories is attending my mother’s graduate school graduation ceremony. It was a huge achievement. I wore a pink frilly dress with afro puffs to her graduation ceremony. I am sure I was gripping someone’s leg and hiding behind them. Behind my mother, my aunt or maybe my father. I was painfully awkward and shy. Which didn’t make any sense because my family was constantly telling me, ‘Be quiet’. That could have been their anthem for me. Children were meant to be seen, not heard.

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I think of that young Sierra Leonean American girl I was, I think back to that day, and wonder what became of her.

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She grew taller, much taller, transitioned from pink dresses to a pink bedroom, and, some say, is poised. But she is still painfully awkward. You wouldn’t know it, but you can catch her at times sitting quietly at an event achingly wishing she were alone and didn’t have to perform.

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I project confidence because I was drafted into an oratory competition in middle school. Something about my voice caught the attention of my middle school teacher Mrs. McNeil. She entered me into one. I don’t recall what I read or the outcome. I only remember my mom driving me to my competition and her, my sister and I pulling up to a very crowded parking lot. Everything gets fuzzy after we arrived.

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In high school, I didn’t need to be drafted into public speaking. I had strong ideals and opinions, and when it came to debate competitions I didn’t need to fit in and be cool. All I had to do was win. I debated as a Junior Statesmen, entered the Essex County Mock Trial competition, and the High School Moot Court Tournament at Princeton University. During 10th or 11th grade I got commendations for my role as a mother whose son died due to someone’s negligence at school. I argued with the other team’s attorneys. I was distraught. I channeled my inner mother. The judge gave our Mock Trial team extra points because I made the case believable. In 11th grade my partner and I came second place in the Moot Court competition at Princeton.

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I live in Maplewood, New Jersey. It is a town that actively engages its children. Our administration and teachers educate us to be competitive academically and in our extracurricular activities, and to actively seek out opportunities for service.

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Teachers tell us we can be great – and expectations are that we will be great.

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It is ingrained in us that to whom much is given much is expected. I do the best I can to embody what is expected of me.

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Truthfully, as an African girl, it was wonderful to be educated like this. At home my parents, aunts and uncles expect nothing less. Outside of home and my classes and clubs, I received mixed messages about who I was and what I could achieve. I was one of a handful of Africans in a diverse community. I didn’t look African or sound African I was told growing up. And I was surprised as a child of how differently I was treated by many of the same color other than my best friend and her family in elementary school. It was fascinating. On one occasion at school I achingly experienced different treatment. A college counselor lost interest in helping me with financial aid when it came up in conversation that I was African. After that conversation she was too busy to meet with me. I went to the head of guidance instead who was fabulous.

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Occasions like this make me acutely proud of where my family comes from and the sacrifices my parents made 30 plus years ago when they immigrated here.

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I see in them that resilience is a must and that success is accessible through motivation, hard work, focus, education and self-improvement.

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As a child, I hurt at the barriers some put up when I told them I am African. And I still do. At times, we are misunderstood and misrepresented. And it doesn’t make me any less proud of my Sierra Leonean heritage.

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Three weeks ago, I had dinner with someone I met years ago. I mentioned something related to my heritage. She stopped for a second. She said she was surprised to hear I am African. Her enthusiasm towards me immediately drained. I wasn’t shocked. I pushed away the feeling of disappointment I feel in these occasions. I acknowledged the difference internally and it didn’t stop me from enjoying her company. It’s a situation I’ve found myself in many, many times.

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I was told I could be great as a child growing up in Maplewood. I let this propel me forward through each obstacle in my way, and I let this make me stand tall as I take on each daunting task before me. I took this with me to every college class and graduate class I have taken even when overpowered by feelings of inadequacy. I have been to events at places where very few people will ever have the chance to go. There are organizations I have worked for that have a competitive selection process. There are certificates I have earned that make me wonder how I gathered the strength to make it through. And there are presentations like the ones I gave at WordCamp US in 2015 and 2016 where I fought through feelings of inadequacy to stand on stage and speak before hundreds of people in the tech industry.

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At these times, I think of the little Sierra Leonean American girl in the pink frilly dress with afro puffs, and wonder how she could achieve each one of these accomplishments.

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I wonder how she became so warmly embraced by the WordPress community, invited to plan WordCamp NYC at the United Nations in 2016, and invited to be a co-organizer of Meetups in NYC. It reflects how inclusive our community is.

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I think of my gender, my color, and my heritage.

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To every woman – we are the same. And, even if we glance at each other and look away, I am you and you are me. We can’t let anyone convince us otherwise.

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I think of the African girl on the continent who doesn’t have the choices and resources I have. I cry for her, and I cry for me.

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I cry because I may never meet her, never look deeply into her eyes, never tell her that she will be great, give her the resources she needs to fully realize her dreams and give her the space to be embraced by the WordPress community. Make no mistake in this digital age that this little girl is aware of what she doesn’t have, and that she needs us to propel her forward.

W3Techs published its Web Technologies of 2016 report today, compiling technologies that saw the largest increase in usage last year. The survey pulls data from the top 10 million sites (according to Alexa rankings) and compares the number of sites for each technology by measuring the difference from January 1, 2016 to January 1, 2017.

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W3Techs ranks WordPress as the fastest growing content management system with 58.5% market share. Shopify and Squarespace demonstrated the second and third largest increases in usage. Squarespace is a newcomer to the top three. In 2015 the second and third place winners were Drupal and Shopify. WordPress has dominated the top spot every year since 2010.

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CMS usage on the whole saw a 3.3% increase. Of the top 15 CMS’s only six demonstrated growth, including the aforementioned top three, as well as Joomla, Drupal, and Bitrix, which showed nominal 0.1% increases in market share by the end of 2016. Blogger is on the decline, and the remaining CMS’s showed no increase or decrease.

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PHP regained its top ranking among server-side programming languages as the fastest growing in 2016, a title which it temporarily lost to Java in 2015. W3Techs estimates PHP to be used by 82.4% of all websites for which it can detect a server-side programming language.

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Another interesting result of the survey is that “WordPress Jetpack,” the stats module in Jetpack, ranks third among the fastest growing traffic analysis tools, trailing Google Analytics and Yandex.Metrika. Jetpack Stats has been on a slow upward trend, rising from 1.6% in 2011 to 4.5% in 2017. The top fastest growing players in this category have repeated several years in a row.

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It’s important to note that many Jetpack stats users also use Google Analytics, but these numbers also give a rough idea of Jetpack usage increase, since it is one of the most popular modules in the plugin. According to W3Techs, Jetpack Stats is used by 6.9% of sites for which it can detect a traffic analysis tool, which it estimates as 4.5% of all websites.

The WP-CLI open source project will be coming under the WordPress.org umbrella in 2017. After recent talks with Daniel Bachhuber, WP-CLI’s official maintainer, Matt Mullenweg announced WordPress’ support for the project, calling it “one of the highest impact developments for WP in many years.” The wp-cli.org website will soon be migrated to WordPress.org and a CLI Make site with its own P2 is now available to contributors.

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“As we head into 2017, I wanted to make sure that its future is certain for everyone who builds on it, and that the major contributors to the project, chiefly Daniel Bachhuber, are able to work on it even more in the coming year,” Mullenweg said. Now that the project is part of WordPress.org, Mullenweg said he will be leading a coalition of companies to “solidify their financial support” of the existing fundraising effort that Bachhuber launched in mid-December 2016.

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The logistics of the new funding model haven’t yet been completely ironed out, but Bachhuber says runcommand will not be shutting down.

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“Runcommand’s sole focus will be to hire people to work on WP-CLI,” he said. “This hybrid approach better ensures WP-CLI’s long-term future (e.g. the project is under the wing of the WordPress project), while also being a creative way for paying for dedicated resources to it.”

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Bachhuber explored different funding models for WP CLI throughout 2016 without much success. When discussions about making it an official WordPress core project first began, he was leaning towards keeping WP-CLI operating as an independent project. The new hybrid approach gives companies the opportunity to financially support an official WordPress project via runcommand, where Bachhuber hopes to hire additional maintainers on a part-time basis.

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“I’ve thought a lot about funding open source over the last year,” Bachhuber said. “In the context of WP-CLI, I came to the conclusion that I didn’t have confidence in WP-CLI being a completely independent project + financially sustainable business.”

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Bachhuber said he feels “reasonably confident” about the future of the project after recent developments and hopes to have funding for a few part-time maintainers.

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“I think part-time is key because each of us needs to be working / solving problems in the real-world, and then taking those solutions back to the project,” Bachhuber said. Although many open source projects operate without paying people for contributions, he believes there is an important distinction between maintainers and contributors.

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“Contributors act in a voluntary manner (e.g. contributing code when they have a couple hours free),” Bachhuber said. “Maintainers take responsibility for the project, showing up every day, and doing most of the unglamorous work. I think maintainership is an important aspect of a healthy open source project. Everyone has an example of an open source project they use that’s no longer maintained and how painful it is to be dependent on it.”

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Responses to the news of WP-CLI gaining official WordPress.org support were overwhelmingly positive, as the tool is critical to the WordPress developer community. The decision to have WP-CLI operate under WordPress.org’s umbrella makes it better positioned to drive the financial support needed to sustain the ongoing burden of maintainership.

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Bachhuber said the current fundraising effort, which is based on a patron support model, is approximately 1/5 of the way to his funding goal. He is still waiting to hear from a number of large players but the funding drive will remain open indefinitely for now. Bachhuber said they will re-evaluate once they reach the goal.

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“I consider this the best possible outcome of my efforts trying to identify sustainability for the project over the last year,” Bachhuber said in the first post on the Make WordPress CLI site. “The decision to make WP-CLI an official WordPress project also means there’s a clear path forward for me to invest more of my own time into the WP-CLI roadmap. Concurrent with the transition process over the next couple of months, I want to move forward the conversation of how we realize a future where WP-CLI is the fastest way to do anything with WordPress.”

Hey folks, HeroPress contributor Michael Beil is fighting for his life right now. Michael’s a personal friend, and a tremendous person. There’s an online donation form to help with medical bills and life in general. If you can, please help out.

In this episode of WordPress Weekly, Marcus Couch and I recap the news and headlines of the first half of 2016. Part two will be recorded on January 4th, 2017, where we’ll look back at the headlines during the second half of 2016, give our predictions for 2017, and share what we’re looking forward to in the new year.

After Post Status Publish’s main talks concluded, Joe Hoyle and I recorded the podcast during the reception. It was a laid back format where we discuss the future of WordPress, including our own wishlist features, and then we spent the majority of the hour taking questions from the audience.

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We recorded this prior to the announcement of the new development schedule and changes to major releases, but most of our conversation remains relevant, as many of our wishlist items are within the three release focus areas that have been chosen.

I’m on a plane. They’ve just served lunch and I realise I’m stuck. There isn’t enough room to slip out for a bathroom break without tipping my meal and the trolley blocks the aisle.

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I cough and notice I’m tense, what’s going on? I enjoy flying, why should today be any different? Is it that I might be sick? Maybe it’s shovelling clothes off of the dining table into an open suitcase and rushing for a taxi at 6am? Or responding to a client at 11pm then playing Rimworld till 2am knowing I’d be up at 5? Maybe it’s Mr Robot? Anyone who’s seen that show knows it isn’t exactly happy.

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I open my watch up and try the new breathe app. I’ve installed watch apps before but never found much use from them, but this came with the update from Apple this morning so I’ll give it a go. It holds me steady but I’m still tense.

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I put on some music and try to eat some food. Maybe that’s the problem? I get anxious sometimes about food, it can get me in trouble. During speaker submissions for WordCamp Europe Sophia I wrote a mini rant about sandwiches and labeling. Siobhan thought it was funny, but I should know better. It was that year I saw a talk on depression.

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I’ve seen several people speak about it, but right now I’m anxious, and I’m typing. After WCEU 2016 I promised Topher I’d write an article for him, and I’ve been occupied. The last month or so, I’ve been working and not taking care of myself. I’m not sure if I’m actually sick or if this is burn out. I’ve noticed aches in my hands, it worries me.

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I think about what writing this will do. My WP Tavern article ranks higher than me on Facebook search.

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There’s nothing like an article on anxiety popping up when a date searches your name. I don’t want to be known as the mental health guy.

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But a promise is a promise. When I last did this people were supportive. They said nice things, they talked about their own feelings and gave talks. Nobody sent their pity.

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The food tray’s gone now, I’m not sure how I feel but I know there’s 2 Automatticians in front of me and 2 to the side. We land in Vancouver in 6 hours for the grand meet up, and I know I’ll get a big hug from several people. They’re genuine nice people, and I’ve come to realise the WordPress community doesn’t tolerate bad actors. We share what we think is important, what people need to hear.

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I’ve got one more episode of Mr Robot, I’ll think about those I see at WordCamps and close this app. It isn’t long before I can talk in person.

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I’m home! Despite a total lack of scrambled eggs on toast in not one, not two, but three major international airports, I’ve finally returned home. My friends dragged me jet lagged to a play entitled “The pacifists answer to the war on cancer” where a jolly sequinned cancer cell sings a song moments after a woman screams in agony. I got to sing happy birthday to my family with a room of Automatticians, climb a mountain, it was fun!

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I think about what I’ve written, and wish I’d been more positive.

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Life can be scary but I’m surrounded by people who want to help.

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Sometimes that’s family, or friends, but user groups and events help too. These people have the same problems and worries I do, and deal with them in many ways.

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Importantly, they’re willing to talk about their problems in front of hundreds of people, and share their solutions. I feel it’s something that isn’t mentioned often enough. Burnout and stress is rampant in our industry, and I’m glad people are stepping up to the challenge.

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I’m a lead organiser for a WordCamp Manchester now. That means I can’t speak at my own conference, but I’m hoping to get a good talk or two. Maybe things aren’t so terrible? Maybe next time I’ll get a window seat.

I love Christmas music, and most years I like to recommend a Christmas music album that is a bit more jazz or has something interesting about it. This year I want to point you to Leslie Odom Jr., aka Aaron Burr in the hit musical Hamilton, who is a gifted vocalist. Hat tip: Rose Kuo. Check out “My Favorite Things.” Embedded on Spotify below, also on iTunes and Amazon.

The BuddyPress development team has released BuddyPress 2.7.4 to address a security vulnerability that affects all versions back to 2.0.

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According to John James Jacoby, lead developer of BuddyPress, “This version patches a vulnerability to the BuddyPress core attachments API that could allow arbitrary file deletion on certain installation configurations.”

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The vulnerability was responsibly disclosed by Sam Pizzey through the HackerOne bounty program. Although Automattic primarily uses the service for its own products, they accept reports for open source projects such as WordPress and BuddyPress.

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Boone Gorges and Paul Gibbs collaborated on a fix for all affected versions of BuddyPress while Stephen Edgar and Dion helped package the release. Those who use BuddyPress are highly encouraged to update as soon as possible to protect against this vulnerability. If you encounter any issues or need help, please create a post on the project’s support forums.

BuddyPress 2.7.4 is now available, and is a security release & recommended upgrade for all BuddyPress installations. We’ve also ported the code changes in 2.7.4 to all branches back 2.0, and are pushing updates out for all installations where we are able to do so.

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These releases include a fix to the BuddyPress core attachments API that could allow arbitrary file deletion on certain installation configurations.

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This bug was responsibly disclosed to the WordPress security team (and the BuddyPress team) through the WordPress HackerOne Bounty Program by Sam Pizzey (mopman).

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Both Boone & Paul worked together to fix this for all versions of BuddyPress that are currently in active use, and Stephen & Dion helped package and push these releases out.

“While this is only the first iteration, the plan is to continue design and development to create something truly amazing,” Mark Uraine said in the announcement. “This is the first step toward that goal.”

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The header and footer have been kept from the previous design. According to meta team member Samuel Wood, matching them to the new design is beyond the scope of this first iteration.

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“The header and footer are global pieces,” Wood said. “Redesigning them, in any way, will have to be part of a much larger effort in redesigning, well, everything. The entire site would need adjustments to adjust them.”

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Uraine said in a previous post that there are iterations underway for a new, more minimal header that better aligns with the new homepage style.

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Feedback on the initial draft included notes on the copy, particularly the “Meet WordPress” headline. One person commented on it not being inclusive of people who have already met WordPress and are returning. Also, a few found the tagline to be too narrow: WordPress is open source software you can use to create a beautiful website, blog, or app. Some suggested the inclusion of other use cases, such as store, forum, and membership site. These ideas have not been incorporated but they were recognized by the design team in the comments on the initial draft.

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The homepage redesign went from sketches to prototype to live on WordPress.org in a matter of a couple weeks. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so far, and most see it as a huge improvement. The new design should receive a great deal more exposure now that it’s live, which will hopefully bring in more varied perspectives towards making it extraordinary in future iterations.

For the first time in… many years, WordPress.org has a new home page. What’s on the page today actually isn’t that important, even though it’s better in many ways, the key is that it’s changing again, the stone has been unstuck and can now keep rolling.

In this episode of WordPress Weekly, Marcus Couch and I discuss the news of the week including, WooCommerce’s 42% market share, the redesign concept of WordPress.org, and two plugin acquisitions. I also share details of a side project I’m working on that involves BuddyPress. Last but not least, we briefly discuss Jeff King’s impact on GoDaddy as he’s leaving the company at the end of this year.

Plugins Picked By Marcus:

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WP YouTube Live displays a YouTube live video from a specified channel via shortcode. There are several shortcode options available that allow you to autoplay and change the video’s dimensions. There’s also an option to not display a video if there isn’t a live video taking place.

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Woo Floating Cart Lite is an interactive floating cart for WooCommerce that slides into view when a user decides to buy an item. Products, quantities, and prices are updated instantly via AJAX. It’s similar to many of the professional carts you may have seen at the big retail stores where the cart is in view at all times.

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Import Facebook Events allows you to import events from Facebook into The Events Calendar and Events Manager plugins. If you are like me and use The Events Manager as your events plugin of choice, this plugin is a no-brainer as an extra add-on. As an add-on plugin this plugin needs The Events Calendar or Events Manager Installed and activated.

If you want to make a living in the world of open source software, Nadia Eghbal has created a guide that explores various models for funding your work. Eghbal, who has written extensively on sustainability and open source, recently authored a white paper published by the Ford Foundation called “Roads and Bridges: The Unseen Labor Behind Our Digital Infrastructure.” The whitepaper was written to help consumers and companies understand the challenges of sustaining open source software.

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Eghbal published “A handy guide to financial support for open source” on GitHub so that others with experience can contribute to the reference. The repository is called “lemonade stand,” a term that references a common summertime business venture where children cut their teeth in entrepreneurship. The lemonade stand is often used as a symbol of capitalism, a new arena that many developers will need to embrace if they want to provide a sustainable future for their open source work.

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Eghbal’s guide currently includes 16 different categories of funding, starting with the smallest (donations, bounties, crowdfunding) to the largest (foundations, consortiums, and venture capital). The funding categories explore pros, cons, and relevent case studies where the particular model has been explored.

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“The purpose of this guide is to provide an exhaustive list of all the ways you can get paid, so that you can figure out what works best for you,” Eghbal said. It has already received additions from 12 contributors, including Daniel Bachhuber, who is currently exploring a patron support model to fund his work on WP-CLI.

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With a few notable exceptions like Red Hat and Linux, open source projects suffer from a severe lack of funding, a problem which Eghbal calls “the internet’s biggest blind spot.” She notes that the problem of funding digital infrastructure is relatively new but is accelerating as more people are using open source software but ignoring the developer tools everyone relies on.

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WP-CLI is a prime example in the WordPress community. Developers who use it are more inclined to send sporadic donations than become personally invested in maintaining the code base, which has led Bachhuber to test different funding models throughout 2016. There have been discussions about making it an official WordPress core project with the goal of widening the contributor base and ensuring its longterm future. However, Bachhuber said he “strongly believes WP-CLI should be an independent project.”

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Eghbal’s funding guide is an important document for open source software maintainers who are struggling to fund their efforts and looking for more options beyond sticking a simple download button on the project’s website. If you’re looking for more discussion on this topic, Eghbal co-produces a podcast called Request for Commits that explores open source’s complicated relationship with money and various sustainability models.

Bradley Kirby released version 1.0 of his Wallace WordPress theme today. The theme is built using the WP REST API and Angular 2. Kirby has been working on Wallace for the past two years and has rewritten it several times in order to keep pace with changes in the REST API and Angular.

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If you view the Wallace demo, you’ll notice that the theme is super fast because the interface is rendered on the client side with JavaScript.

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“It really opens a whole new world of possibility for WordPress themes,” Kirby said. “For this release I’ve primarily focused on smooth page transitions. That’s just not possible with the traditional server-rendered themes. But I think there’s a lot of really cool customization techniques that the API allows for, too. That’s what I’m hoping to explore next.”

“I really like the prescriptive nature of Angular,” Kirby said. “There’s a ‘right’ way to do things that you’ll find in example projects and all the functionality comes with the framework itself. With React you have to use a collection of third-party libraries with various maintainers. With Angular, it’s all Google, and all one repository. I think React is a perfectly fine framework, and they actually share a lot of concepts.”

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Wallace currently only supports posts, but Kirby plans to implement more core WordPress features, including pages, comments, searching, and category filtering. He said those features shouldn’t be too difficult to implement now that the frame is there.

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“From a programming perspective, this was way more difficult to create than a PHP-rendered theme, because you get so much ‘for free’ with the PHP theming API that you don’t get when you’re just making raw requests to the REST API,” Kirby said. The primary advantage of theming with the API is more instantaneous interactions with the content, but creating API-driven themes is not yet as easy as the old way of theming.

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Kirby said he is actively exploring the idea of submitting Wallace to WordPress.org, but the Theme Review Team does not permit the use of Twig templates.

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“I’ve brought it up with the team that approves themes, and they didn’t like that I was using the Twig templating library on the PHP side,” Kirby said. “So I’d have to maintain two versions of the theme if I were to submit it to the directory.” Kirby hasn’t ruled it out yet and said he will probably revisit the idea next year.

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“Twig templates mirror Angular templates really nicely,” Kirby said. “It cuts down on the maintenance burden quite a bit, because I have to exactly mirror the templates on the server side and the client side. That would be more difficult if I had to construct PHP echo strings, the typical WordPress template way.”

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Wallace is integrated with the Customizer and will disable its JavaScript when it detects the Customizer is open, reverting back to a “normal” theme. Currently the only option users can customize is the site icon and site title. Wallace does not yet offer support for setting a static front page.

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The next items on Wallace’s roadmap are adding more core features into the theme. Kirby said he is also exploring the idea of creating a commercial magazine theme in the future.

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“I think the real killer use case for this way of developing themes is e-commerce, but I want to get a good solid magazine style premium theme done before I tackle that,” Kirby said.

One of the first things I recommend users do after installing WordPress is to either close user registration or install a plugin that protects the site against spam registrations. A friend of mine recently started a new WordPress site that has BuddyPress installed.

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After two weeks, I chipped in to help him out and discovered more than 300 registered spam accounts. To make matters worse, these accounts were able to create new groups in BuddyPress and each one contained spam content. The first thing I did was close user registration then I began the boring process of removing the accounts.

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We ran into an issue where legitimate users needed to create accounts while user registration was closed. After asking for suggestions on Twitter and performing a few Google searches, I discovered the Invite Anyone plugin by Boone Gorges. Invite Anyone allows registered members to invite people to register to the site via email while registration is closed.

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Using variables provided by the plugin, you can customize the email invitation subject line, the invitation message, and the text at the end of the email. I used the default values which happened to suit my needs. You can also give registered users the ability to customize the invitation subject line or message body and limit the number of emails members can send at one time. In my case, the most important setting to enable was allowing email invitations to be accepted even when site registration is disabled.

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There are other configuration settings as well such as controlling who can send emails and limiting group invitations. Invite Only also has built-in support for CloudSponge, a service where users can invite anyone from their address books without leaving your site. Stats are built-in as well but during testing I couldn’t get the Stats tab to load. The Stats tab loads the General Settings page instead.

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Here’s what Invite Anyone looks like from a user’s BuddyPress profile page. In addition to inviting someone to the site, users can also invite them to a BuddyPress group as well.

\nWhat Invite Anyone Looks Like on the Frontend\n

I’m using this plugin on a site running WordPress 4.7 and it’s functioning as expected. So far, we’ve invited three people and all of them were able to successfully register an account despite user registration being disabled. If you use BuddyPress and need a free solution that implements a user invitation system, I recommend Invite Anyone.

Transparency makes the world go round

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I like being honest, so please allow me to provide a context for this story. First of all, I’m a pretty introvert kind of guy, and I often need to be thrown in the cold water to start learning how to swim. This was exactly what happened with my teammate, Oana, when she asked me if I’d be tempted to give HeroPress a go. Of course I would, and so it started the beginning of this story. The next lines are the result of a friendly dialogue between us. Enjoy the ride, dear fellows.

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Here’s Andrei, a passionate web dev who truly admires the WordPress world. I’m a full-time backend at Pixelgrade, a design studio where we create WordPress themes that solve real and painful digital problems. Yes, we don’t just play around with eye-candy pixels, we strive to show up with trustworthy solutions that make people’s lives easier and more pleasant.

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I’ve experienced an intense professional rollercoaster till I got here. I still remember the first time I met with the WordPress fascinating world. It was during my first job interview. The employer (today a good friend of mine) told me that I would need to play around with Joomla, something I loved at that time. You can laugh, it’s okay. I do the same.

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However, the interview was full of tricks since I needed to do something totally different: create a homepage into WordPress. This way, the team could have seen how fast I’m able to learn new stuff. Pretty good trap since everyone working in the digital playground needs to be open-minded and capable of improving their skills and knowledge.

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That was the very first contact with WordPress, and I was surprised to see its potential. Not only it was easy-to-learn and get along with thanks to an in-depth documentation, but it also had an active community eager to help. Fast forward and the story had a happy ending: I got the job.

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Becoming better is kind of a mantra for the true WordPress people

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Starting from there and since today I still appreciate WordPress from top to toe. I have a bunch of reasons why I feel this world fits my values and principles. First of all, I enjoy all the PHP talking around WordPress. I find it interesting and challenging at the same time, and every time I have the chance to get involved, I accept it without hesitations. Another great aspect is directly related to my day-to-day job at Pixelgrade. The backend universe where I can improve an amount of cool things keeps my motivation up and kicking. On top of that, I resonate with JavaScript in various ways, backend and frontend too, and from time-to-time I write down my thoughts on my personal blog. I’m always happy to share ideas and provide feedback that helps. In the end, this is all about when you think of WordPress as an ecosystem, right?

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Talking about this core mission, I must confess that WordPress can be felt like a lifestyle into a room with glass walls. Everyone sees what you do, how you do it, and why you keep doing it. Nobody can take your work for granted, but can easily be inspired by it and even improving it. Becoming better is kind of a mantra for the true WordPress people, and that’s why they jump in and start spreading solutions about how things can achieve a superior level. With other words, it’s like sailing with a bunch of amazing people eager to enjoy the same outstanding experience.

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On the other hand, there are some coders that still think that WordPress is not that sexy and challenging in the end. They’re definitely not in the same boat, but I think it’s fair from our side to help them change their mind. And not because we chose to work in this playground, mostly because this platform changed a lot in the last years.

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The simple fact that I improve someone’s life through my work means the world to me.

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Here are my thoughts for all those programming lovers that would like to try WordPress, but need an extra boost.

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A wide range of features

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Articles, menus, widgets, users, live previews, e-commerce, e-learning, listings and so on. You can administrate them, make them better, simply play around as you wish. It might sound naive, but in reality these different areas are constantly bringing all kind of challenges on the table.

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Legacy code

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WordPress still strives to support the PHP 5.2.4 version, which was dropped five years ago but 7.5% from today’s websites still use it. But hey, WordPress is all about keeping users on board, happy and loyal, not skipping the battle. In the end, it does say something about the whole philosophy of the people behind the scenes.

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Colleges got it wrong

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There was a time where people studying Object Oriented Programming didn’t take WordPress seriously since it’s based on functional programming and that handy and approachable isn’t something that helps you progress. Well, things changed, people changed, now functional programming is turning back as the coolest thing to do nowadays, and WordPress is trying to get the best from both paradigms.

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WordPress makes me proud

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I mean it. It’s not just shiny words thrown into the digital garden. I’m a proud WordPress backend dev who deeply feels that impact matters, and building things for an open-source community matters even more. I’m also happy with the diverse work I do at Pixelgrade: one day can be Customify or the WP Body Class plugin, the next one can be improving Listable, a WordPress theme used by thousands of users spread all over the world. In between could be the passionate discussions regarding the core of WordPress, some advice tailored on other authors or the amazing WordCamp Europe. Whatever it is, I am grateful that I found my place where creativity, freedom, and braveness are in the first place.

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Call it as you wish, but the simple fact that I improve someone’s life through my work means the world to me. It gives me a sense of fulfillment, the necessary energy to keep improving, and the never-ending joy that I did something useful. And hey, there’s just another beginning since Pixelgrade has reshaped its digital presence through an outstanding website and more consistent brand story. So bring it on, fellows!

A WordPress.org homepage redesign is now in the works with a strong focus on marketing to new users. As the face of the open source project, the site is long overdue for some design attention. Mark Uraine, a designer at Automattic, posted on the Make/Meta blog about how quickly the project is coming together:

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“During the Contributor Day at WordCamp US, the Marketing Team sat down with a project in mind — the homepage of wordpress.org,” Uraine said. “Since the new design style is making an appearance in various places across the site, there was a desire to reboot the homepage as well.”

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Uraine posted the group’s original sketches as well as a screenshot of the initial draft on desktop and mobile. The screenshot doesn’t include the site’s header and footer, which will be added when the design is implemented. The team has also created a Codepen Prototype, which demonstrates the fixed background featuring high profile WordPress sites that visitors see as they scroll.

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“Keep in mind that this is only version 1.0 and we’re planning on launching and iterating quickly,” Uraine said when asking for feedback from the community. “Otto has offered his help to get this implemented. After a few technical revisions, I’ll be passing it over to him for implementation and providing support where I can.”

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The redesign focuses on social proof (market share and showcase examples) as well as WordPress’ features and extensibility:

Since Uraine posted the design draft, commenters have been weighing in with revisions to the site copy, which hasn’t yet been finalized. A few contributors have also suggested including A/B testing, although no specific metrics have been determined. The redesign is moving fast, so make sure to jump in on the Make/Meta post if you have feedback on the draft.

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WordPress is getting more strategic about its marketing in 2017. Matt Mullenweg announced during the 2016 State of the Word that he is bringing a new product-based leadership to core development and is assembling a Growth Council to coordinate strategy with organizations invested in WordPress’ growth.

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“I think in the past WordPress got by on a lot of marketing happenstance,” Mullenweg said. “We can become a lot more sophisticated with our messaging and presentation on WordPress.org to bring people in and tell the story about what makes WordPress different.”

For the past two weeks, I’ve been helping a friend build his site. The site uses WordPress and BuddyPress and is the first opportunity I’ve had to use BuddyPress for a project. The site is dedicated to a Hockey League league that’s specific to a video game. The league has a number of players and teams.

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By default, when a visitor browses a BuddyPress member’s profile, the activity tab is displayed. Since a player’s team is displayed on a user’s profile, I wanted the profile tab to be the first thing users see. According to the BuddyPress Codex, it’s possible to change the default landing tab by adding a line of code to either a bp-custom.php file or to wp-config.php. The code is as follows:

As I didn’t want to create and upload another php file, I inserted the code into wp-config.php. At the time of writing this article, the help document on the BuddyPress Codex did not specify where in the wp-config file the code should be placed. After adding the code to the bottom of the wp-config file, I noticed it didn’t work.

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The trick is to add it to a place that runs before BuddyPress is fully loaded. I moved the code so that is was after the define(‘DB_COLLATE’, ”); line in wp-config. This allowed the code to run without any issues.

\nCode Added to the Proper Place in the wp-config File\n

With the code in place, whenever someone clicks on a player’s name that’s mentioned in a post, the first thing they see is their profile and the team they’re assigned too.

\nProfile Page Loads First in BuddyPress\n

This is a small change in how BuddyPress works but for an implementor like me, it was a bit of a hassle. The largest obstacle in achieving what I wanted were the directions that don’t specify where in the config file the code should be placed. I’ve since edited the Codex article to prevent others from experiencing the same trouble.

In this episode of WordPress Weekly, Marcus Couch and I are joined by Tony Perez, co-founder and CEO of Sucuri. It’s easy to tell from this episode that Perez is extremely passionate about web security.

Perez spoke relatively quickly and at times, the conversation was technical. I recommend listening to the show at least twice in order to digest everything.

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Plugins Picked By Marcus:

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Product Review comes with common features that you may need for a review focused site. This includes editor reviews, user reviews, segmented rating, pros and cons, affiliate button and a lot more.

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Messengerbot for WooCommerce provides the ability to send your customers messages via Facebook Messenger. It supports Order Receipts, Order status changes, and Customer Order notes.

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Email Tracker is a plugin that notifies you if the emails sent by WordPress using the wp_mail function have been read or not. It displays statistics like how many times an email has been read with the date and time.

Tickets for WordCamp Bangkok 2017 went on sale over the weekend and there are 235 remaining. The event will be held on February 18, 2017, at CP Tower on Silom Road. This is the third WordCamp to take place in the Bangkok area but organizers are including an English Track for the first time at this year’s event. The Thai and English tracks will run side-by-side and will include WordPress topics for users of all levels.

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Yesterday organizers unveiled the new Thailand Wapuu, featuring traditional Thai garb and a banana stalk. Bananas leaves and stems, in addition to the fruit itself, make up an important part of Thai life with both ceremonial and practical uses.

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The calls for speakers and sponsors are open and higher level sponsorships are already sold out. Speaker applications will be accepted through January 5, 2017.

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Previous WordCamps in the region were held in 2008 and 2009. During the past eight years the Thai WordPress community has grown and the Thai WordPress Alliance group on Facebook now has more than 9,800 members. WordCamp Bangkok 2017 has a maximum capacity of 300 attendees. If you plan to go, make sure to purchase your ticket early before the event sells out.

Last week Automattic published its annual “Year in Review” stats, including WooCommerce stats for the first time since the company acquired Woo in 2015. As of December, there are 1,594,894 active stores using WooCommerce and roughly 1/3 of those (530,000) are new in 2016.

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One of the most exciting areas of growth is WooCommerce’s global market share. Although both the Year in Review post and the WooCommerce website have the software at 39%, Builtwith stats show WooCommerce powers 42% of all online stores. This is a huge leap from 30% a year and a half ago, when it was acquired.

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WooCommerce market share is even higher in emerging markets like India (55% among stores using the .IN extension) and Mexico (56% among stores using the .MX extension).

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WooCommerce in 2017: Evolving Storefront for Independent Stores

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In May 2016, WooCommerce introduced WC Connect, its new Automattic-hosted SaaS architecture built on the WP REST API that makes it easier for users to add and configure store features. Real-time USPS shipping rates for US-based stores is the first of many planned hosted components. Version 2.6 introduced the new Shipping Zones feature and an updated design for account pages. In 2016, WooCommerce also released its Square integration to sync online and offline purchases and inventory.

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The plan for 2017, according to the Year in Review summary, is to continue making setup and scaling easier. At WordCamp US I asked Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic, what he looks for in a buying experience and how he hopes to bring that to WooCommerce.

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“When I buy from an independent store online, I’m looking for it to be as friction-free as possible,” Mullenweg said. “I don’t want a lot of steps. I don’t want it to force me to register if I don’t want to. I don’t want the form to error out in weird ways – anything that breaks my trust. When I visit a website to buy something, how a site looks can increase or decrease my trust.”

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WooCommerce’s official Storefront theme, which is active on more than 80,000 stores, plays an important part in shaping the buying experience for millions of customers. Mullenweg said Storefront has a lot of potential for improvement.

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“With the Storefront theme there’s actually a lot we can do there to make it look like a really cool store out of the box, much like the default themes in WordPress,” Mullenweg said. “Part of the reason we change them every year is what was cool in 2012 is not cool in 2017. Fashions change, trends change. I think Woo should evolve Storefront in the same way. There’s kind of a look for independent stores right now. They’ve got a certain vibe. Let’s make it easy to do that vibe, so that you don’t have to be on Etsy or Amazon or one of the e-commerce monoliths to keep people coming to you and supporting your product.”

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Mullenweg said there are features in the power packs and add-ons that could be good candidates for building into Storefront. The theme launched in 2014 and since that time has made mostly gradual improvements. The last major design improvements were released last May in version 2.0, but many store owners opt for a child theme if they want more extensive design changes to Storefront.

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If WooCommerce market share continues to grow at the same rate, it could easily pass 50% of all online stores in 2017. With 53 meetups scattered across the globe – from Tokyo to Mumbai to Vancouver, the plugin is embracing the community factor that has made WordPress a success.

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“I think both Jetpack and WooCommerce individually could each be bigger than WordPress.com,” Mullenweg said. “They’re both smaller than WordPress.com right now but I think each on their own could be several times larger. There are multi-billion dollar opportunities in both, so that’s what we’re working on.”

Lashbrooke no longer has the time to dedicate to the project, “I am in fact selling the plugin (along with all of its add-ons) as I just no longer have the time or bandwidth available to support it in the way that I know it deserves,” Lashbrooke said. Lashbrooke created the plugin to democratize podcasting and says it was never meant to be a full-time project.

\nSeriously Simply Podcasting Settings Page\n

Podcast Motor provides editing and production services to podcasters. Craig Hewitt, founder of Podcast Motor, acquired the plugin because of its established brand, ease of use, and it allows his company to serve a wider audience.

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Seriously Simple Podcasting will remain a free plugin and Hewitt will continue to support it through WordPress.org. He also plans to add free features to increase the plugin’s value, “This will include things like bulk importing of episodes/feeds from other providers, RSS feed validation, and some enhanced front end styling of the on-page podcast display,” he said.

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Hewitt is ready to breath new life into the project and is seeking feedback from users on what features they’d like to see added, “Our long-term goal is to enhance the functionality of the product so that it meets more needs of more podcasters down the road,” he said.

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Instead of abandoning the plugin or putting it up for adoption, Lashbrooke has found it a new home with a developer eager to improve on his work. If you use Seriously Simple Podcasting, what features do you want to see added?

This particular funding experiment is not asking for one-time contributions but rather follows a subscriber model where patrons will be billed annually. Bachhuber said he has a number in mind in order to consider the funding a success but he is not going to share it.

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“I want to see if this is a viable approach for funding a for-profit business,” Bacchuber said. He plans to fully refund subscribers if the campaign doesn’t reach its goal.

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Last year Bachhuber raised $32,822 in a highly successful Kickstarter campaign from 107 backers, which funded development during the first part of 2016. After the campaign he started a business called runcommand that offered enterprise support and custom development for hosts and agencies. This was an attempt to help subsidize his time spent on WP-CLI, but it didn’t work out the way he planned:

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The business is doing alright, not great but not horrible. What I’ve come to realize, though, is that my time is zero-sum. I’m incentivized to spend time on runcommand, when I’d rather spend it on WP-CLI.

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Ultimately, the challenge I’m running into is opportunity cost. I’d love to be able to invest more into WP-CLI, but doing so comes at the cost of other business pursuits. Because WP-CLI is such a large project, the several hours I volunteer each week are basically enough to fight entropy — not make headway on larger initiatives.

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Bachhuber said he hopes this patron-esque model will scale so he can hire a few people to work on WP-CLI, helping reduce his bus factor and creating a stronger contributor base.

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“The project itself is at a point where it needs dedicated attention from maintainers, not occasional changes from contributors,” Bachhuber said in response to commenters on the post.

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“I will, however, echo other comments here in regards to the wish for a public roadmap, more transparency, marketing efforts, and more in regards to the business being built upon WP-CLI,” subscriber Pippin Williamson said. “I have chosen to make my subscription payment as a donation to the project, not as a purchase/ of the product / service because, at this time at least, there’s not really anything I get out of it beyond continued development of the project.”

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Williamson said the new wp doctor and wp profile commands would not be of much use to him or his team. He also suggested that Bachhuber sell a professional subscription that offers a library of additional commands for popular plugins, such as WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, WP Migrate DB Pro, and Gravity Forms.

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“What I’ve come to appreciate is that WP-CLI will be far more successful in the long-term by building all of these in the open, instead of a more traditional model of making some selection of them paid-access,” Bachhuber said.

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Subscriptions will help fund the ongoing maintenance of WP-CLI, the creation of new commands, and improvements to the website and package index.

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For a project that is geared almost exclusively towards developers, there’s a surprisingly low number of contributors to its development. The brunt of it falls to Bachhuber as the official maintainer. His campaign puts the impetus on subscribers to help improve the tools they use every day through monetary contribution.

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Hopefully, funding the organization will also precipitate a culture shift resulting in more developers who are motivated to get their hands dirty and become personally invested in the code base. Funding one person’s time is not the most effective way to keep a project afloat and may not do much to reduce the bus factor on the project unless Bachhuber can hire or inspire more maintainers.

By choosing to wrestle with the challenges of funding open source software in a transparent way, Bachhuber is paving the way for other project maintainers to learn from his experiments and pursue similarly unorthodox funding options. So far WP-CLI has received 17 subscribers. If it reaches 50, Bachhuber plans to create a members-only forum. The funding experiment closes on December 28th.

WordPress.com announced today that users can now upload and publish VR content on their sites, including 360° photos and 360° videos. Regular photos and panoramas are also now viewable in VR. The VR gear tested so far includes Cardboard, Gear, Daydream, Rift, and Vive.

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Uploading VR content works just like adding normal pictures and videos. Users can then add 360° photos and videos to posts using a “vr” shortcode. The Harvard Gazette’s Confronting the Refugee Crisis story is one live example of the new VR content in action:

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“Our goal is to make publishing VR content as simple as publishing text or photos to the web,” Automattic team lead Toni Schneider said. Schneider, who is a big VR fan himself, led the team to bring VR capabilities to WordPress.com. He worked in a VR startup in the 90’s after college and has been a VR fan ever since.

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“With the re-emergence of VR, it struck me that WordPress can play a role in making VR content easy to create and access for everyone, just like we did for text and photos,” Schneider said. His team at Automattic uses VR for collaboration and Schneider said “hearing [teammates’] voices in their proper spatial locations makes for a more natural and seamless collaboration experience” that feels less forced than a screenshare or video chat.

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Immersive storytelling driven by VR technology is also finding its way into the publishing industry. As part of his article in NiemanLab’s Predictions for Journalism 2017 series, Mario García, a media consultant and adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, predicts that “storytelling using VR will be easier to achieve, and more members of the audience will be prepared to welcome it.”

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García cites the The New York Times and its Daily 360 section as one of the first publications to experiment with the medium. WordPress.com uses a similar UI, as you can see on the Harvard Gazette example, with an overlay that indicates VR content.

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“One form of storytelling that will gain momentum: virtual reality,” García said. “It’s no coincidence: Editors and publishers are looking for ways to tell stories on mobile devices, and the future of virtual reality is also on mobile. For many newsrooms, VR is going to be the one big area for experimentation in 2017.”

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WordPress.com is ready to ride this trend, making immersive storytelling available to all users – from large publications to small blogs. A few plugins, such as VR Views and WP-VR-view, are already available for self-hosted sites, and WordPress.com plans to make its VR capabilities more widely available to the WordPress world soon.

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“It will be in Jetpack soon, as soon as the next Jetpack release comes out,” Schneider said. “The technology is built to work on all WordPress sites and even beyond that, on any web site. We consider this first release just a start. As soon as we see how people use it, we will start adding more features and supporting more types of VR experiences.”

During the last WordSesh event held in August 2016, Matt Mullenweg joined the community for a session where he spoke about the growth of WordPress and his thoughts on confronting the project’s external threats. Mullenweg floated the idea of a WordPress Growth Council – a collection of individuals and organizations interested in contributing to WordPress’ growth.

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“We have very direct competitors in Squarespace, Weebly, and Wix,” Mullenweg said. “Wix is a public company so it’s actually possible to see their numbers and look at things. This year alone there’s about a quarter billion dollars being spent in marketing by proprietary systems that compete against WordPress. That’s more spent in one year than has ever been invested in all of the WordPress companies combined since they started. That’s more money spent in marketing than for many consumer brands.”

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WordPress has grown organically over the past 13 years through the power of its community, without expensive advertising campaigns or traditional marketing initiatives. For the first time, Mullenweg is looking to tap a segment of the community that hasn’t often been directly involved in contributions – people and organizations with large scale marketing expertise.

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“I think we could do a lot to figure out a roadmap for countering this huge marketing spending being directed against us, because we are the big guy here,” Mullenweg said. “We are the 26% and they are like a 1%. But even though they’re smaller, they might be cannibalizing some of the most valuable aspects of the WordPress customer base.”

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Just before WordCamp US, he formalized the idea with a post on his blog and an open invitation for council member applicants:

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\nNever have there been more threats to the open web and WordPress. Over three hundred million dollars has been spent in 2016 advertising proprietary systems, and even more is happening in investment. No one company in the WP world is large enough to fight this, nor should anyone need to do it on their own. We’d like to bring together organizations that would like to contribute to growing WordPress.

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The survey for potential council members asks them to share what they bring to the table as well as a few ideas about the growth of WordPress so far, how it can be accelerated, and how the project can best respond to the millions of dollars competitors are spending in advertising. Responses have already started coming in.

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Alexa Scordato, VP of Marketing at Stack Overflow, applied to be part of the council. She said her experience as a long-time WordPress user and marketing executive has motivated her to help improve the overall consumer experience.

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“I’ve been tinkering with self-hosted WordPress sites since 2007 and I’ve helped probably 100+ individuals and organizations explore the merits of the .com and .org experience,” Scordato said. “Let’s get real – the relationship is confusing, the admin panel is intimidating, and the learning curve is steep. The product marketer in me is itching to help streamline the value proposition across these funnels to help make it easier to educate and on-board new users.”

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She is also an advocate for the open web and sees WordPress as a key player in combating the threat of walled gardens and closed systems that diminish user freedoms.

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“While many enterprises are beginning to invest more in open source projects, there’s an imbalance in the force,” Scordato said. “The fact that an open source platform like WordPress powers 27% of the web makes it the greatest agent in defending Internet freedom.”

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Nuno Morgadinho, co-founder of WidgiLabs and co-organizer of WordCamp Lisbon, is another applicant to the growth council who published thoughts on what it should address. He thinks WordPress needs to take a hard look at attrition before considering advertising.

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“As important as advertising is, a lot of businesses struggle and fail, not because they aren’t adding new users, but because they are lousy at keeping the ones they’ve got,” Morgadinho said. “We have to look at ourselves and see where we are losing users rather than just desperately try to reach new ones. Most people use things based on referrals.”

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What Will the Growth Council Look Like?

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After WordCamp US, I had the opportunity to ask Mullenweg a few questions about what types of applicants he’s hoping to attract to the council. He said he envisions it will function very much like a working group or mastermind group where council members learn from each other.

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“It’s not necessarily only people at larger companies – the biggest contributions will come from people who currently are or have in the past managed some sort of large promotion of something,” Mullenweg said. “It doesn’t need to be WordPress. Maybe they sold Starbucks. Large advertising campaigns are what we’re trying to counter so experience for that is a good precondition for participating in the growth council.”

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Mullenweg said he has received applications from people whose companies aren’t in the WordPress ecosystem but who are experienced in this area and want to contribute some night and weekend hours to help out.

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“I imagine there will be other folks, including from Automattic, that are going to be spending budgets of tens of millions of dollars in the coming year and want to talk about that,” Mullenweg said. “There are some things that could be shared, including publicly. Everyone who does marketing does some research first. Why don’t we open up that research? That’s part of what I want to encourage. By taking an open source approach to this, doing more sharing both within the council and in the wider WordPress community, I think there’s a lot more to learn.”

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Mullenweg said the meetings won’t be completely open, as companies may want to share some confidential information. The council may have some house rules in place to make it a safe space for companies to share what they are doing and to keep strategies safe from competitors.

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In 2017 Mullenweg has committed to putting on the “product lead” hat for WordPress core development and it seems he’ll be bringing that same approach to the growth council.

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“Advertising is just a product, just like an interface is, just like a website is, just like anything else,” Mullenweg said. “There’s a lot of opportunity there.”

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During his WordSesh session he outlined a few initial objectives for the council to tackle, including figuring out why the project has grown so far and understanding where the community’s resources are currently being spent.

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“We should try to enumerate and track what is being spent right now, add up all the advertising, affiliate fees, and sponsorships of events,” Mullenweg said. “Determine what that adds up to so we know what is the gap we need to close and the relative arsenals on both sides.”

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Mullenweg said he would like the council to figure out a plan for advertising where “we’re not competing with each other but really directing that outward against the folks who might go to Wix or Squarespace.” This particular aspect may be a challenge, as the council will need to avoid the appearance of serving only larger corporate interests in the fight against external threats.

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“These external threats and proprietary threats are far bigger than any intra-WordPress open source threats,” Mullenweg said. “We can grow the pie far faster than we can take shares from people in the same pie.”

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For the past three years, WordPress has consistently added 2% to its market share each year without any form of advertising. Instead of the project continuing to get by on “marketing happenstance,” as Mullenweg put it in the State of the Word address, 2017 will be the first year that WordPress makes a coordinated marketing effort to change the growth curve.

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“The people power of WordPress is probably the thing that contributes most to the usage of WordPress,” Mullenweg said. The growth council’s challenge with advertising is producing that same magnetism on a larger scale without tarnishing the organic quality of the message. Can they come up with a marketing campaign that captures the essence of what WordPress is to the people who love it most? If the council is successful, it stands to have a positive impact on the WordPress economy as a whole.

WP-Optimize started as a personal project but when Rabin discovered that other users were looking for similar functionality, he uploaded the plugin to WordPress.org, “It ended up being a much bigger project than I imagined; when I connected with other people, I was suddenly opened up to a world of new challenges,” Rabin said. “I was encouraged to constantly improve the software’s functionality and compatibility, as well as the support information available.”

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As the plugin’s popularity and user base increased, it eventually became too much work to support and maintain. Rabin received a few acquisition offers over the years but decided not to sell, “For me, WP-Optimize’s legacy was of prime importance. I didn’t set it up to make money, but to help out as many people as possible,” he said.

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One of the reasons Rabin accepted UpdraftPlus’ offer is his familiarity with the plugin and its business model, “Even though they are business-driven, they still have a great freemium ecosystem,” Rabin said. He also appreciates the company’s enthusiasm and drive to take the product to the next level.

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David Anderson, founder and lead developer of UpdraftPlus, says the acquisition makes perfect sense, “Although we see a lot of revolution on the outside, the WordPress core has been stable for a long time, and as such, there will always be a need for database optimization in order for sites to run efficiently.”

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As part of the acquisition, Rabin will take on an advisory role in its continued development. Multisite support, a commercial version with additional features, and the ability for users to control it remotely through UpdraftCentral, are among the top priorities in development.

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Since the acquisition, UpdraftPlus has released a new version of WP-Optimize that Anderson says paves the way for future developments, “This release has a complete re-factoring of the plugin’s internals, to lay a solid foundation for future improvements.”

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“Although it looks the same outwardly, it has been modernized and solidified,” Anderson said. “We have a great and growing team, a lot of experience in the internals of WordPress and also a lot of users who trust and depend on us. There’s plenty of opportunity for us to expand.”

Working in WordPress full time did not come quickly, directly, or in the ways I expected, and it was worth every step of the way. I started out in marketing in the music industry and ended up as the project manager at a WordPress development agency nearly 10 years later. Changing careers is a lot of work and none of it happens by accident. Here’s a story about how I took some dashed hopes and an economic crash and turned it into everything I ever wanted.

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I started out by moving to NYC the day I graduated college to work in the music industry. Armed with my BA in English, I found my way in – I don’t care what anyone says, my English degree is my secret weapon.

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If you can’t communicate effectively and hold someone’s interest in the process, it doesn’t matter how many letters you have after your name or how many specialized degrees you hold.

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However, once I established myself as a project manager a major record label in the big city, it wasn’t easy to stay. I loved New York, but I did not love working nights to make ends meet. Realizing that my career in the music industry might not be something I could do long-term, I enrolled part-time in an accredited web development diploma program. All the classes were online, so I could do classwork around my work schedule. However, the record label was bought out and privatized, and the new owners instituted a 50% reduction in headcount worldwide. I tried to look at it as a blessing in disguise — more time to spend on completing my diploma while working fewer hours as a temp! But, answering phones and entering data didn’t exactly make me want to get out of bed in the morning. I tried to focus on shifting gears to becoming a developer.

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Becoming A Developer

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Though I got a great base of knowledge in HTML, CSS, PHP, Photoshop, light JavaScript, and, yes, Flash and ActionScript, I didn’t really have the goods to get a programming job right away. I was eventually re-hired in a different position by the record label, but this time I was slowly but surely working more digital into my marketing position. Finally, I had done enough to get another job as the head of digital marketing for a boutique music and entertainment-focused agency.

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Though I was finally doing the type of work I wanted to do, I was starting to feel like New York wasn’t where I needed to be. One major pull was my long-distance NY to LA relationship. Sometimes, career is just not enough to keep you in one spot, so in June of 2011, I moved to Orange County, CA.

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I was able to continue working remotely for the entertainment PR firm, but I wanted a more meaningful connection with the artists I was working with. I started freelancing for select bands, and then found a position handling all things internet-related for an Orange County-based artist management company.

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It was an absolute dream – I was the social media voice for one of my favorite bands, plus many more new clients and projects I would have loved even if I wasn’t on the management team. In the interest of meeting new people in this new place as well as learning something, I started attending the Orange County WordPress Meetup at Zeek Interactive and learned how to take my general knowledge of PHP and apply it to this CMS that everyone seemed to be talking about. As some of our up-and-coming bands needed websites, I’d volunteer to build them. It was cost-effective for the client, and it gave me a chance to try out all the things I’d learned at the OCWP meetup. I also served as internal project manager for sites built by an external agency.

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I learned more from the many mistakes I made in developing websites than I did anything else.

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Coding myself into a corner was an opportunity to grow through asking someone else to show me where I went wrong. For a while, the OCWP developer night featured some time for someone to get up in front of everyone, walk the group through an issue they were working on, show their steps and reasoning, and ask for assistance. All the more experienced developers in the room were very kind to me, several of them going out of their way to help me learn new concepts to make my themes even better.

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Branching Out

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Bands don’t need websites all that often, and I wanted to keep learning, so I found some non-entertainment website work to do on evenings and weekends. For a lot of it, I was a second pair of hands for another developer. For others, friends or friends of friends would come to me for help with their small business sites. These small sites worked out great, but I fully understood that the way I was working had a ceiling to it. If it’s a relatively small site with not a lot of traffic to scale, I could help. If it was going to be a big site that a lot of people would see, my code would probably not be ideal. I knew enough to be dangerous, and I knew how to fix a site if and when it white-screened, but not enough to implement all the latest and greatest techniques.

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So, I started looking to get back into my first love: project management, only this time for websites instead of musicians. Thankfully, my friend Steve Zehngut suddenly found himself with a need to replace his PM, and after we talked through goals and methods of working, we made it official.

\n

I’ve been the project manager at Zeek Interactive for two years now, and it’s been everything I could have ever hoped for. It took nearly a decade, retraining, lots of late nights and weekends spent learning new things and getting way outside my comfort zone, but I successfully changed industries and careers. Anyone who says it’s easy to change your life is lying to you. But I’m hard-pressed to find a reason not to do it anyway if you want to make new and better things happen.

WordCamp Harare, the first ever WordCamp in Zimbabwe, was held over the weekend at the Harare City Library. Harare was selected out of 182 applicants as one of the three locations for the WordCamp Incubator Program. The experimental program launched in February 2016 with the goal of bringing WordCamps to new locations around the world where local meetups may not be as well established.

\n

WordCamp Harare was successful at connecting the Zimbabwean WordPress community and introducing the attendees to the concept of a WordCamp.

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“It was a great day because we met lots of people who are passionate about WordPress and building stuff on the internet,” Limbikani Soul Makani Kabweza said in his recap of the event. Kabweza is a contributor at Techzim, a Zimbabwean tech publication that runs on WordPress.

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“As Techzim (and the other startups we work with like Soccer24 and Pindula) the internet is our lifeblood, so a day dedicated to discussing internet platforms and how to do things better was the amazingly enriching experience we expected it to be.”

\n

Co-organizer Charles Muzonzini, who works as a web and mobile app developer with The Computer Society of Zimbabwe, said, “WordCamp Harare 2016 was an awesome success, far exceeding my expectations. Everything was on point and I’m glad to have met so many great people and learnt so much. This is hands down the best IT conference this year.” Muzonzini is also a co-organizer of the Harare WordPress Meetup, which now has 82 members.

\n

Job Thomas, who works as an Education Vanguard at Automattic, traveled from Cape Town to speak about WooCommerce at the WordCamp. In a guest post for the event Thomas wrote about the importance of open source for the empowerment of Africa in removing hindrances for becoming successful.

\n

“It is great to see WordCamp Harare happening,” Thomas said. “WordCamps are not primarily events for communicating ideas – although this plays a big role. WordCamps are primarily a celebration of the open source community; they gather people with a similar passion for making the web a better place.”

\n

WordCamp Harare was the fourth WordCamp held in Africa in 2016, joining events in Nairobi, Johannesburg, and Cape Town in the expansion of the WordPress community in southern and eastern Africa.

\n

\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 13 Dec 2016 05:11:55 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:42;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:73:\"WPTavern: WordPress 2.7 Is the Role Model for How Design Can Lead the Way\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:29:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=64183\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:84:\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-2-7-is-the-role-model-for-how-design-can-lead-the-way\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:11607:\"

When Matt Mullenweg, co-creator of the WordPress open source project, announced that design would lead the way for WordPress development in 2017, utilizing user research and mockups, the first thing that came to my mind was WordPress 2.7. That release was the culmination of effective leadership and effort from Jen Mylo and Liz Danzico. In order to learn why this release is in a class of its own, we must look at how it was created.

\n

Introducing Crazyhorse

\n

On March 29th, 2008, WordPress 2.5 “Brecker” was released to the world. The biggest feature in 2.5 was the redesigned backend that was built in collaboration with Happy Cog.

\n

When Mullenweg gave the public a sneak peek at the redesigned backend, he had this to say:

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For the past few months, we’ve been working with our friends at Happy Cog — Jeffrey Zeldman, Jason Santa Maria, and Liz Danzico — to redesign WordPress from the ground-up. The result is a new way of interacting with WordPress that will remain familiar to seasoned users while improving the experience for everyone. This isn’t just a fresh coat of paint — we’ve re-thought the look of WordPress, as well as how it’s organized so that you can forget about the software and focus on your own creative pursuits.

\nWordPress 2.5 Post Editor\n

While some people praised the redesign, others were not happy, particularly with the menu hierarchy. Since sentiment in the community was mixed, Mylo contracted Ball State University’s Center for Media Design, Insight and Research to perform a usability report on the WordPress 2.5 admin design. The report was used to figure out which issues were based on interface problems versus people simply not liking the changes.

\n

Usability testing results were shared with lead developers which inspired a prototype interface to address some of the issues discovered. This allowed developers to use WordPress 2.5 on their own sites and the prototype on a test site. However, once testing began with the prototype interface, it became clear that a more ambitious approach was required.

\n

According to Mylo, the second prototype known as “Crazyhorse” blew test subjects away:

\n

The second round of testing blew everyone away. The research team had never seen such consistent results. Tasks were completed faster, participant opinions rated it higher, understanding of how interface elements worked was greater, and it wasn’t even a fully functional application. Of the test participants, every single one said they would choose the prototype over their current administrative interface, and it wasn’t even pretty.

\n

Throughout the 2.7 development process, Mylo used a number of communication channels to gather user feedback. On September 15th, 2008, Mylo published a Navigation Options Survey. The survey was part of a broader effort to get more people involved in the design and decision process:

\n

As part of the mission to increase user involvement in design decisions, we’ve created a survey intended to give WordPress users the ability to play a part in deciding how the navigation options should be grouped and labeled.

\n

Later that month, a second survey was created that allowed users to vote on mockups of the search box, favorites menu, the Future/Publish and Edit Timestamp buttons. It only took two days for the survey to reach its maximum response count of 5,000.

\nCrazyhorse Wireframe\n

Once the survey concluded, Mylo published a follow-up post as well as a document containing wireframes that gave users an idea of what the end product might look like. Near the middle of October, 2008, Mylo published semi-polished screenshots of the 2.7 interface and explained how it worked. Matt Thomas and Andy Peatling are largely responsible for the design of WordPress 2.7.

I asked Dunkle what inspired him to create the icons and if Mylo didn’t offer the opportunity to the community the way that she did, if he would have contributed to WordPress 2.7 otherwise.

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“When I saw Jen’s post calling for icon designers to submit a set for 2.7, it was right at the deadline,” Dunkle told the Tavern. “I can’t remember how I found the post, since I didn’t visit the WordPress development blog very often. I’d been building sites with WordPress for few years by that time, and really enjoyed it, but I didn’t think much about the online community.”

\n

“Jen expressed the direction eloquently: ‘Icons should be subtle, with a classic/designed look, nothing cartoonish. Thin lines. Maybe a little old-fashioned looking.’ I was designing icons for other open source projects around that time, and the language of the post struck a chord with me. I rushed out an email.

\n

“I ended up as a finalist, pushed the pixels, and sent off the design. Mine got the most votes. The contest caused some controversy, since anything resembling spec work has always been a lightning rod in the design community. I didn’t see it that way. It was an open source project and I was a volunteer, not a contractor.

\n

“In the end, it launched an ongoing connection that I maintain to this day. They’re now called Dashicons, made with vectors instead of pixels, and soon to be SVGs instead of web fonts (once we get the bugs sorted out).”

\n

After going through the beta and release candidate stages, WordPress 2.7 “Coltrane” was released to the public on December 11th, 2008. More than 150 people contributed code directly to the release and countless others contributed with valuable feedback during opportune times through surveys, mailing lists, and testing.

\n

Referring to WordPress 2.7, longtime user Ozh had this to say, “The dev team asked users what they wanted and what they liked, and the result is light years beyond what the design studio produced for 2.5 six months earlier. One word to summarize it all: ‘Above the fold!\'”

\n

WordPress 2.7 Set a Great Standard

\n

During Contributor day at WordCamp US 2016, I asked Mullenweg if the WordPress 2.7 development process inspired the experimental approach to developing WordPress in 2017.

\n

Yeah, I mean that was one of the beginnings to Jen’s contributions and her huge impact on the WordPress world. She brought an entirely different way of thinking with a user first, usability, research led mindset. It was fantastic to have female leadership demonstrating very early on in the WordPress community that this is software made by everyone for everyone. What that was for its time is a great standard to hold ourselves up to as we move forward in 2017.

\n

Out of all the WordPress releases I’ve covered since 2007, WordPress 2.7 is special. It’s the only release where I feel like a lot of the community rallied together and focused on making WordPress better. Through surveys, comments, blog posts, testing, and reaching out to talented people in the community for help, Mylo proved that the community can be part of the development and design process of WordPress and end up with a better product as a result.

\n

Things have changed since 2008. The community, contributor pool, and the project itself has become larger. Communication is spread out among the Make Blogs as well as SlackHQ. The WordPress development process is more open now than ever before. Since WordPress 2.7’s release, I haven’t felt the same spark of rallying together for a common goal that Mylo was able to foster. Perhaps it’s because I’m not part of a project team like the REST API or I’m not searching for it in the right places. I hope those feelings are rekindled in 2017.

\n

It will be interesting to see how the new development process works out. Until then, I leave you with a wonderful quote from Mylo as it succinctly captures the way I feel and remember the WordPress 2.7 development cycle.

\n

“I hope you enjoy getting an inside look at how we’ve been organizing our thoughts around 2.7, and that when the community feedback starts flowing everyone remembers that we all want the same thing: the best WordPress possible.”

The full video and Q&A from 2016’s State of the Word last week in Philadelphia is now online. This year was especially exciting because it wasnt’ just a look back at the previous year, but sets out a new direction for where WordPress will be in 2017 and beyond.

Over the weekend, Bluehost experienced a severe, widespread network issue that caused customer sites to go down. The incident began Friday evening and continued into the night. As WP Tavern is hosted on Bluehost, we were watching the situation with keen interest, finally clocking the downtime at 12 hours before our site was back up.

\n

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We are seeing problems w/ network flapping which could be caused by denial of service or other network issues in our switching fabric. (1/5)

The Bluehost Twitter and Facebook accounts kept customers updated as network engineers worked to resolve the issue. Shortly after midnight Bluehost said they identified a network loop within a portion of the network. Staff worked to restore services “while making sure we do not reintroduce the loop into the network.”

\n

At approximately 10 hours into the downtime, Bluehost updated customers who were still down, citing “a packet filtering problem” in its core routing layer for which the team had created a fix. Within a couple more hours most of the company’s customers were back online.

\n

\n

We have identified a packet filtering problem in our core routing layer. We have worked closely with our vendor to develop a global fix- 1/2

Bluehost’s earliest communications about the downtime indicated a DDoS attack may have caused the incident, though this is no longer a strong consideration.

\n

“It doesn’t appear to be a DDoS but we are conducting a full investigation,” Bluehost head of product Brady Nord told the Tavern after the incident. His team worked around the clock to identify and resolve issues until customer sites came back up.

\n

“Many of our dedicated and VPS customers were affected to some degree for approximately 12 hours,” Nord said. “We made every attempt to keep our customers informed during the event as information became available because we understand our customers depend on our products and services.”

\n

Nord would not share further details about the cause of the outage but said the company plans to complete a detailed post mortem to prevent future outages.

\n

“With any significant event that affects our customer base, we conduct an extensive examination after the event to ensure we understand the root cause and develop a course of action to improve our systems and procedures,” Nord said.

“The incident last night mainly impacted our dedicated and VPS customers which is a lower density section of the platform,” Nord said.

\n

Bluehost has not yet published the results of its investigation, but support staff have replied to customer inquiries with a fairly definitive assessment of the issue as having been due to a spanning tree issue on their core routing layer.

\n

\n

@saxangle Sure we can tell you what happened. We discovered a spanning tree issue on our core routing layer which caused network degradation

Spanning tree protocol misconfigurations can cause network problems similar to what Bluehost experienced but results of the investigation should confirm whether this was the root of problem that took customer sites down over the weekend.

Oh, bother! Out now is bbPress 2.5.12, which fixes a bug for WordPress 4.7 users who did the right thing and updated to bbPress 2.5.11. Some of you may have noticed your bbPress menu items disappear – this release fixes that stinger.

\n

2.5.12 officially bumps the minimum WordPress version requirement to 4.7 for all releases going forward. If you are stuck on a previous version of WordPress, please continue to use 2.5.11.

\n

This cut-off is in place because the improvements to user-roles in WordPress 4.7 are really that important, and all future bug-fix releases to 2.5 and major releases going forward will be taking advantage of them.

\n

If you’ve updated to 4.7 and are one of the unlucky few to get stung by the missing-menu bug, please accept my sincere apologies along with an update to 2.5.12 to relieve the itching.

I invited Ruter and Halsey on the show to give us some insight into its origin and why it was created. We also discuss its evolution since WordPress 3.6 and why it’s an important part of WordPress’ future.

\n

The duo shared their experience of what it’s like to iterate on a feature that routinely receives push-back from a subset of the community. We also talk about the perception that features are continuously being crammed into the Customizer when it’s really about adding live previews to WordPress functionality.

\n

Last but not least, Ruter and Halsey describe what improvements we can expect to see going forward. For details on how to contribute to the Customize component, please visit the Make Core Customize Component website.

\n

Plugins Picked By Marcus:

\n

Product Designer allows you to display an awesome Product Designer on your website via short-code. You can add unlimited clip art using a custom post. Text can be used with a fancy font family, font size and color.

\n

Text To Speech Widget converts any text into speech in a selected language and voice. It supports 63 voices in different languages. The plugin is based on HTML5 and doesn’t require using Flash.

\n

Featured Products First for WooCommerce allows a product in WooCommerce to be featured on the first shop page as well as search results. It also comes with a sidebar widget to display featured products on the homepage.

Even though the call for speakers for WordCamp Europe 2017 has just opened, organizers are already on the hunt for a city to host the event in 2018. The team chosen to host in 2018 will need to be planning throughout 2017 and should be present on the ground in Paris, so the selection process is already underway.

\n

WordCamp Europe is currently WordPress’ largest community event, and support and mentorship have been a key part of its success. Petya Raykovska, a past organizer, said the prospect of organizing the event can be intimidating for new teams but mentors will be available to applicants throughout the process.

\n

“The mentors are supposed to help the local teams prepare a better application,” Raykovska said. “They are all experienced WCEU organizers who can help with many aspects of the planning.”

\n

Host city selection is based on more than two dozen factors, including organizer experience, location, venue, and budget considerations. One of the most challenging aspects is securing a venue that can accommodate 3,000 attendees, but applicants are given a lot of flexibility on the event date.

\n

“We ask volunteers to book a venue for 3,000 people,” Raykovska said. “Not only are there not many venues that can fit us at this scale, most of them are booked years in advance.”

\n

Raykovska said organizers can book dates anywhere from May 1 – June 31, 2018. This makes it possible to have more cities and venues vying to host the event.

\n

Raykovska volunteered in Leiden in 2013 and helped organize WordCamp Sofia after that. In 2014, she applied to host WordCamp Europe in Sofia along with Tina Kesova, Nikolay Bachiyski, Veselin Nikolov, and Mario Peshev. Since that time she has been involved in organizing the event and mentoring newcomers. Potential applicants are encouraged to get in touch if they are wondering if their team has what it takes.

\n

“Sometimes these conversations serve as a reality check,” Raykovska said. “People can get super enthusiastic about organizing without having an idea of the time commitment. We want WCEU to be a positive experience for organizers and make sure our local teams have enough people and are aware what it takes to get involved as a local host.”

\n

Applications for host city will be open through February 15, 2017 and the decision will be made by the end of February. The team selected for 2018 will then join the 2017 planning team to gain a better understanding of the process. Potential applicants who want to be matched to a mentor can get in touch by emailing host at wp-europe.org.

\n

“In late 2013, one tweet pushed the WordCamp Sofia team to apply to host WCEU,” Raykovska said. “It turned into the most incredible journey I’ve taken so far with stops further beyond the future host cities of Seville, Vienna, and Paris. It’s time for someone to write the next chapter of the story.”

Version 4.7 of WordPress, named “Vaughan” in honor of legendary jazz vocalist Sarah “Sassy” Vaughan, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. New features in 4.7 help you get your site set up the way you want it.

\n

Introducing WordPress 4.7

\n\n

Presenting Twenty Seventeen

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A brand new default theme brings your site to life with immersive featured images and video headers.

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Twenty Seventeen focuses on business sites and features a customizable front page with multiple sections. Personalize it with widgets, navigation, social menus, a logo, custom colors, and more. Our default theme for 2017 works great in many languages, on any device, and for a wide range of users.

\n\n

Your Site, Your Way

\n

WordPress 4.7 adds new features to the customizer to help take you through the initial setup of a theme, with non-destructive live previews of all your changes in one uninterrupted workflow.

\n

Theme Starter Content

To help give you a solid base to build from, individual themes can provide starter content that appears when you go to customize your brand new site. This can range from placing a business information widget in the best location to providing a sample menu with social icon links to a static front page complete with beautiful images. Don’t worry – nothing new will appear on the live site until you’re ready to save and publish your initial theme setup.

\n

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Edit Shortcuts

Visible icons appear to show you which parts of your site can be customized while live previewing. Click on a shortcut and get straight to editing. Paired with starter content, getting started with customizing your site is faster than ever.

\n

\n

\n

Video Headers

Sometimes a big atmospheric video as a moving header image is just what you need to showcase your wares; go ahead and try it out with Twenty Seventeen. Need some video inspiration? Try searching for sites with video headers available for download and use.

\n

\n

\n

\n

Smoother Menu Building

\n

\n

Many menus for sites contain links to the pages of your site, but what happens when you don’t have any pages yet? Now you can add new pages while building menus instead of leaving the customizer and abandoning your changes. Once you’ve published your customizations, you’ll have new pages ready for you to fill with content.

\n

\n

\n

Custom CSS

\n

\n

Sometimes you just need a few visual tweaks to make your site perfect. WordPress 4.7 allows you to add custom CSS and instantly see how your changes affect your site. The live preview allows you to work quickly without page refreshes slowing you down.

\n

\n

\n\n

\n

PDF Thumbnail Previews

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Managing your document collection is easier with WordPress 4.7. Uploading PDFs will generate thumbnail images so you can more easily distinguish between all your documents.

\n

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\n

Dashboard in your language

\n

\n

Just because your site is in one language doesn’t mean that everybody helping manage it prefers that language for their admin. Add more languages to your site and a user language option will show up in your user’s profiles.

\n

\n

\n\n

Introducing REST API Content Endpoints

Content endpoints provide machine-readable external access to your WordPress site with a clear, standards-driven interface, paving the way for new and innovative methods of interacting with sites through plugins, themes, apps, and beyond. Ready to get started with development? Check out the REST API reference.

Settings Registration API

Customize changesets make changes in the customizer persistent, like autosave drafts. They also make exciting new features like starter content possible.

\n\n

The Squad

\n

This release was led by Helen Hou-Sandí, backed up by Jeff Paul and Aaron Jorbin as Release Deputies, and with the help of these fine individuals. There are 482 contributors with props in this release—the most ever—with 205 of them contributing for the first time. Pull up some sassy Sarah Vaughan on your music service of choice, and check out some of their profiles:

\nSpecial thanks go to Rami Abraham for producing the release video and the many fine haiku we saw in the beta and RC announcement posts.

\n

Finally, thanks to all the community translators who worked on WordPress 4.7. Their efforts bring WordPress 4.7 fully translated to 52 languages at release time with more on the way. Additionally, the WordPress 4.7 release video has been captioned into 44 languages.

\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"4596\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:1;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:17:\"Moving Toward SSL\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:53:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2016/12/moving-toward-ssl/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 01 Dec 2016 17:20:29 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"category\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:11:\"Development\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:34:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4588\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:327:\"We’re at a turning point: 2017 is going to be the year that we’re going to see features in WordPress which require hosts to have HTTPS available. Just as JavaScript is a near necessity for smoother user experiences and more modern PHP versions are critical for performance, SSL just makes sense as the next hurdle […]\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Matt Mullenweg\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:1627:\"

We’re at a turning point: 2017 is going to be the year that we’re going to see features in WordPress which require hosts to have HTTPS available. Just as JavaScript is a near necessity for smoother user experiences and more modern PHP versions are critical for performance, SSL just makes sense as the next hurdle our users are going to face.

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SSL basically means the link between your browser and the server is encrypted. SSL used to be difficult to implement, and often expensive or slow. Modern browsers, and the incredible success of projects like Let’s Encrypt have made getting a certificate to secure your site fast, free, and something we think every host should support by default, especially in a post-Snowden era. Google also weighs SSL as a search engine ranking factor and will begin flagging unencrypted sites in Chrome.

\n

First, early in 2017, we will only promote hosting partners that provide a SSL certificate by default in their accounts. Later we will begin to assess which features, such as API authentication, would benefit the most from SSL and make them only enabled when SSL is there.

\n

Separately, I also think the performance improvements in PHP7 are particularly impressive, and major kudos to everyone who worked on that. We will consider whether hosts use PHP7 by default for new accounts next year as well.

RC means we think we’re done, but with millions of users and thousands of plugins and themes, it’s possible we’ve missed something. We hope to ship WordPress 4.7 on Tuesday, December 6, but we need your help to get there. If you haven’t tested 4.7 yet, now is the time! To test WordPress 4.7, you can use the WordPress Beta Tester plugin or you can download the release candidate here (zip).

\n

WordPress 4.7 is a jam-packed release, with a number of features focused on getting a theme set up for the first time. Highlights include a new default theme, video headers, custom CSS, customizer edit shortcuts, PDF thumbnail previews, user admin languages, REST API content endpoints, post type templates, and more.

\n

We’ve made quite a few refinements since releasing Beta 4 a week ago, including usability and accessibility enhancements for video headers, media and page template support in starter content, and polishing of how custom CSS can be migrated to and extended by plugins and themes. The REST API endpoints saw a number of bugfixes and notably now have anonymous comment off by default.

\n

Not sure where to start with testing? Try setting up a fresh site on a new installation with Twenty Seventeen (hint: head into customizing your site before touching any pages or widgets) and taking notes on what you enjoyed and what got you stuck. For more details about what’s new in version 4.7, check out the Beta 1, Beta 2, Beta 3, and Beta 4 blog posts.

Developers, please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 4.7 and update your plugin’s Tested up to version in the readme to 4.7. If you find compatibility problems please be sure to post to the support forums so we can figure those out before the final release – we work hard to avoid breaking things. An in-depth field guide to developer-focused changes is coming soon on the core development blog.

\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"4579\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:3;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:20:\"WordPress 4.7 Beta 4\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:56:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordpress-4-7-beta-4/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 16 Nov 2016 01:51:52 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"category\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8:\"Releases\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:34:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4576\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:329:\"WordPress 4.7 Beta 4 is now available! This software is still in development, so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 4.7, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can […]\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"Helen Hou-Sandi\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:2019:\"

WordPress 4.7 Beta 4 is now available!

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This software is still in development, so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 4.7, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the beta here (zip).

We are almost there\nPlease test your plugins and themes\nRC coming soon\n

\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"4576\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:4;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:34:\"WordCamp US 2017-2018 in Nashville\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:70:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordcamp-us-2017-2018-in-nashville/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 15 Nov 2016 23:24:17 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"category\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8:\"WordCamp\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:34:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4571\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:330:\"The title says it all. We had some great applications for cities to host WordCamp US after we finish up in Philadelphia this year, and the city chosen for 2017-2018 is Nashville, Tennessee. Based on the other great applications we got I’m also excited about the pipeline of communities that could host it in future […]\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Matt Mullenweg\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:1022:\"

\n

The title says it all. We had some great applications for cities to host WordCamp US after we finish up in Philadelphia this year, and the city chosen for 2017-2018 is Nashville, Tennessee.

\n

Based on the other great applications we got I’m also excited about the pipeline of communities that could host it in future years as WordCamp US travels across the United States and gives us an opportunity to learn and love a new city, as we have with Philadelphia.

\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"4571\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:5;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:39:\"\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:20:\"WordPress 4.7 Beta 3\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:56:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordpress-4-7-beta-3/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 11 Nov 2016 03:30:52 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"category\";a:3:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:11:\"Development\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:1;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8:\"Releases\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:2;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:3:\"4.7\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:34:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4566\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:329:\"WordPress 4.7 Beta 3 is now available! This software is still in development, so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 4.7, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can […]\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"Helen Hou-Sandi\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:3120:\"

WordPress 4.7 Beta 3 is now available!

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This software is still in development, so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 4.7, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the beta here (zip).

REST API: The unfiltered_html capability is now respected and rest_base has been added to response objects of wp/v2/taxonomies and wp/v2/types, while get_allowed_query_vars() and the rest_get_post filter have been removed.

\n

Roles/Capabilities: Added meta-caps for comment, term, and user meta, which are currently only used in the REST API.

\n

I18N: Added the ability to change user’s locale back to site’s locale. (#38632)

\n

Custom CSS: Renamed the unfiltered_css meta capability to edit_css and added revisions support to the custom_css post type.

\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"4566\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:6;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:39:\"\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:20:\"WordPress 4.7 Beta 2\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:56:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordpress-4-7-beta-2/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 04 Nov 2016 17:39:07 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"category\";a:3:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:11:\"Development\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:1;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8:\"Releases\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:2;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:3:\"4.7\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:34:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4552\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:329:\"WordPress 4.7 Beta 2 is now available! This software is still in development, so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 4.7, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can […]\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"Helen Hou-Sandi\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4240:\"

WordPress 4.7 Beta 2 is now available!

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This software is still in development, so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 4.7, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the beta here (zip).

\n

Notable changes since WordPress 4.7 Beta 1:

\n

\n

Twenty Seventeen: The theme wasn’t being installed on upgrades – sorry about that! Now you should see it if you’re upgrading an existing site. There are also plenty of fixes, especially for the header and small screen views.

\n

Edit shortcuts: These are always visible while editing (hide them on bigger screens by collapsing the controls) and should now work properly in Firefox. (#27403 and #38532)

\n

REST API endpoints: There have been a number of changes over the past week; your attention is requested on the following:\n

\n

The DELETE response format has changed and may need to be accounted for. (#38494)

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WordPress 4.7 Beta 1 is now available!

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This software is still in development, so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 4.7, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the beta here (zip).

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WordPress 4.7 is slated for release on December 6, but we need your help to get there. We’ve been working on a lot of things, many of them to make getting your site set up the way you want it much easier. Here are some of the bigger items to test and help us find as many bugs as possible in the coming weeks:

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Twenty Seventeen – A brand new default theme brings your site to life with immersive featured images, video headers, and subtle animations. With a focus on business sites, it features multiple sections on the front page as well as widgets, navigation and social menus, a logo, and more. Personalize its asymmetrical grid with a custom color scheme and showcase your multimedia content with post formats. Our default theme for 2017 works great in many languages, for any abilities, and on any device.

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Video Headers – Sometimes a big atmospheric video as a moving header image is just what you need to showcase your wares; go ahead and try it out with Twenty Seventeen. Need some video inspiration? Try searching for sites with video headers available for download and use.

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Set up your site in one flow – From finding and installing themes right inside the customizer, to automatically staged theme-specific starter content, to clickable shortcuts that jump directly to editing an item from the preview pane, to adding pages while you’re building a nav menu or setting a static front page: getting a new site spun up and ready to share with a friend or a coworker is faster and easier than it’s ever been. Note: starter content appears when live previewing brand new sites and is currently only available in Twenty Seventeen. We’ll be expanding this to other bundled themes very soon, and perhaps to sites with existing content in future releases of WordPress.

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Custom CSS with live previews – Ever needed to hide or tweak the look of something in your theme or from a plugin? Now you can do it with CSS and live preview the results while customizing your site. CSS can be a powerful tool; you may find that you won’t need the theme editor or child themes anymore.

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User admin languages – Just because your site is in one language doesn’t mean that everybody helping manage it prefers that language for their admin. To try this out, you’ll need to have more than one language installed, which will make a user language option available in your profile.

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PDF thumbnail previews – Uploading PDFs will now generate thumbnail images so you can more easily distinguish between all your documents.

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As always, there have been exciting changes for developers to explore as well, such as:

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REST API content endpoints – If you only test one thing as a developer, please test these. This phase is particularly helpful for people building plugins, themes, and in-admin interfaces. Can you build the things you need? Are these ready for release, and is the world ready for them? (#38373)

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WP_Hook – The code that lies beneath actions and filters has been overhauled. You likely aren’t affected, but if you’ve done things to the $wp_filter global or experienced funky recursion bugs in the past, please take a moment to read the dev note and test your code.

Admin in your tongue\nOne site, many languages\nWe all speak WordPress

\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"4535\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:8;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:45:\"\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:50:\"Join Us Again for Global WordPress Translation Day\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:86:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2016/10/join-us-again-for-global-wordpress-translation-day/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 14 Oct 2016 13:33:57 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"category\";a:5:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:9:\"Community\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:1;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:19:\"contributor weekend\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:2;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:32:\"global wordpress translation day\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:3;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:9:\"polyglots\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:4;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:12:\"translations\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:34:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4516\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:373:\"The WordPress Polyglots team is organizing the second Global WordPress Translation Day on November 12th. Everyone is invited to join – from anywhere in the world! Translating is one of the easiest ways to get involved with WordPress and contribute to the project. Global WordPress Translation Day is your chance to learn more about translating WordPress, meet […]\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"Petya Raykovska\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4273:\"

The WordPress Polyglots team is organizing the second Global WordPress Translation Day on November 12th. Everyone is invited to join – from anywhere in the world!

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Translating is one of the easiest ways to get involved with WordPress and contribute to the project. Global WordPress Translation Day is your chance to learn more about translating WordPress, meet people from all over the world, and translate WordPress into one of more than 160 languages.

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Join us on November 12th from anywhere in the world

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The translation day starts on Saturday, November 12th, 2016, at 0:00 UTC and ends 24 hours later. See what time that is for you! You can join right from the start, or any time it’s convenient for you throughout the day.

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What are we doing?

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Local contributor days are happening all over the world, and are a great way to get involved. Check out this map to see if there’s already a local event happening near you. Can’t find one? Organize a local event!

Who’s it for?

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Whether you’re new to translating and want to learn how to translate, or an experienced translation editor building a strong team, the translation day is for you. Developers will also enjoy topics from experienced contributors, whether you’re learning about internationalization and or want to find more translators for your themes and plugins. There’s a session for everyone!

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Get Involved

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Joining is easy! On November 12th, in your own timezone, translate WordPress or your favorite plugins and themes into your language, while watching live sessions over the course of the day.

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Want to get more involved? Sign up to organize a local event and invite your local community to translate together on November 12th. Events can be formal or completely informal – grab your laptop and a couple of friends, and head to a local coffee shop to translate for an hour or two.

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Can you get involved if you only speak English?

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Absolutely! Even if you only speak English, there are great sessions about internationalization that can benefit every developer. There’s also lots of English variants that need your help! For example, English is spoken and written differently in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. You can learn about these differences and why these variants are important during the sessions.

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And if you’re feeling fun, try translating WordPress into emoji! Yep, we have a translation of WordPress in emoji!

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Hi there! I\'m a bike messenger by day, aspiring actor by night, and this is my blog. I live in Los Angeles, have a great dog named Jack, and I like piña coladas. (And gettin\' caught in the rain.)

\n\n...or something like this:\n\n

The XYZ Doohickey Company was founded in 1971, and has been providing quality doohickies to the public ever since. Located in Gotham City, XYZ employs over 2,000 people and does all kinds of awesome things for the Gotham community.